The Arcana Chronicles: Army of Darkness
by Morris Archeltum
Summary: On hiatus until further notice. Don't worry, I'm not giving up. there are just certain things I need to work out regarding this story and my own writing style before I come back to this.
1. Intro

_**Author note: I realized a little too late that the description doesn't do anything at all to describe what kind of story this is, but I can't really do it in the ammount of space given, so I'm going to attempt to fix that here.**_

_**Warning: This story will contain explicit content between a pokémon and a human in a future chapter, but anyone who doesn't want to read that can skip over it.**_

_**full description: When trying to sort dreams from reality is the least of your worries, you know you've got a messed up life. Meet Marcus Emerson, a rebelious 18 year old who finally managed to get away from his parents and back to sinnoh. But as soon as he arrives, everything goes to hell in a hand basket. People and pokemon are disappearing for no reason. Wierd, shadow-like creatures are lurking in the darkness of every corner, and whether he believes it or not, Marcus holds the key to stop it. Can he figure out what's happening before its too late? will he even try?**_

_**alright, that's as good as I can make it without giving away too much of the actual plot. For those who were expecting a flat out romance story, I'm sorry to dissapoint you, but don't worry, there will be plenty of it, it's just not the main genre. In reality, you could call this adventure/supernatural/sci-fi/friendship/romance, but there aren't enough slots for me to do that.**_

_**anyways, let's get on with it, shall we?**_

_**ADELANTE!**_

***kch..kchckhkc...ckchckhckhchckh***

My eyes flickered open as my pokémon themed alarm clock emitted the all too familiar sound of static. With a groan of displeasure I slammed my fist down on the machamp's head that served as the off button.

As I finally regained the strength to turn my head, I gathered the courage to look at the time.

**5:30 a.m.**

…_God damn it mom…_

It seems my mother had once again ignored the "do not enter" sign that hung on the door and kindly readjusted my clock for me. Just another thing she does that annoys the crap out of me.

I slid my way out of bed, half walking and half crawling over to my mirror.

Other than the small scar under my chin, my face was flawless, which was in sharp contrast to the scattered, black brillo pad that is my hair. I knew all too well that trying to fix it would be completely pointless and I turned away to look out the window.

The sky was painted a brilliant shade of orange as the sun slowly started to make itself known to the world. The branches on the trees were shaking slightly, indicating that there was a pleasant breeze in the air. I opened up the window and took a deep breath of fresh air, picking up the slight aroma of flowers that always enveloped this little island of ours.

_Another perfect day in paradise…FUCK!_

Six years…six years I've been stuck on this beautified hunk of nothingness. Six years of no communication with anyone outside of my family. Six years of pointless research that could have been done in a few days. Six years wasted…and this is how it would continue.

Ever since I was a kid, my parents have always done their best at controlling every single aspect of my life. The clubs I joined, or ignored. The classes I passed, or failed. The friends I made, or shunned. Everything that wasn't part of their master plan was extracted, one way or another.

They wanted me to be a pokémon researcher, just like them. In fact, I'm pretty sure the only reason they ever had a kid was to continue their legacy. I was pushed into honors EVERYTHING right from the beginning, which is stupid considering I have a bad case of ADD and no interest in learning whatsoever. After I tried my very hardest and turned up with C's, they cracked down the whip. They started small, taking my video games and television like any normal parent does in this situation. But as it went on, I found myself enjoying less and less. Next it was my phone privileges, my computer, my right to go out on the weekends, and even stopping my friends from coming over. They isolated me from the influence of the outside world leaving a sad little boy to do nothing but studying. When I was eleven, I decided that I would get straight A's no matter what the cost. I spent hours upon hours going over ever single scrap of information non stop for an entire year, only taking breaks for eating and sleeping. By the end of it, I had my straight A's. I rushed up to my dad with my report card in hand, asking if I could finally have some freedom. He just chuckled at me and retorted "but your doing so well, why change anything?"

Ugh…it's amazing how one little sentence can change your entire perspective on life. That sentence was the ultimate revelation in my life…the thing that snapped my mind like a tooth pick. Those words told me everything I needed to know. I had no freedom, I wasn't going to be given any, and the only way I could have it is if I take it by force.

That, was arguably the best year of my life. I cut school almost every day and just explored Jubilife city, doing everything that I knew would piss my parents off the most. Luckily, public schools didn't care if you showed up or not.

I would stay away from home for days at a time and dear old mom and dad wouldn't notice a thing. I swiped my report cards as they came in, changing F's to A's before they got a chance to read them and acted as if nothing was happening.

I had a perfect system, nothing could touch me. Yet all good things must come to an end. One of the things I did that I knew would piss my parents off, was learn to play an instrument. Of course, I never had any money, I found an old acoustic guitar in a dumpster and fixed it up. I taught myself how to play, and was actually pretty damn good, so I started playing on the street corner for money, earning about 10 dollars an hour. Yet, one day my father walked by, and as he was dropping a quarter, he saw my face with a devilish grin plastered on it.

I swear, if he was a few years older, he would have suffered a heart attack. He screamed at me for weeks on end, each time earning a smile on my face. If dad was angry, that just meant I was doing a good job.

He tried to buckle down on me, but there wasn't much he could do about it. I didn't even care about getting caught anymore so it's not like I had to be discreet about it. Even if he walked me into the classroom and waited until school started, I would be out of there the minute he left the room.

Having no control over me whatsoever, he did the only thing he could think of. Take me to a place where there were no distractions. He received word of an island where for some reason, no pokémon resided. No one knew how or why, but it was completely uninhabited. It was right smack dab in the middle of no where, cut off from everyone and everything, a perfect place to mold his misfit son into a soulless robot. He took the chance without a second thought.

So here I am, and here I stay, until I can find a means of getting off this rock.

"Marcus!"

A familiar scream snapped me out of my little reflection time, yet I didn't answer. Instead, I slipped on a shirt, grabbed my IPod, and jumped out the window.

Landing on the balls of my feet, I took off running towards the woods. Unfortunately, this is not the first time I had used this tactic. As I neared the edge of the forest, my mother stepped out from behind a tree, blocking my path of escape.

"And just where do you think you're going young man?"

"uhh…anywhere but here." I answered truthfully. Boy was that ever the wrong thing to say. Wrapping her hand around my ear, she yanked me back towards the house.

"GAH, WATCH IT, I NEED THAT EAR!"

She dragged me over to piece of patio furniture and shoved me down into the seat as my father came out the back door.

"We need to talk young man?" he said with his usual, strict voice.

I gave a fake pout. "I'm sorry, I can't hear you. I've been physically abused in the ear!"

"Oh, shut up Marcus!" my mom retorted.

My dad slid his glasses up to his eyes and gave me one of his death glares. "You haven't been helping with the research at all Marcus, you have to pull your weight or we'll-"

"Take away my right to breath?" I interrupted with an eye roll. He tried to yell at me, but I was quicker. "I told you a week after we got here that I figured it out and you just laughed in my face."

This gained a frown from dad, as I knew it would. "Marcus, you have nothing to prove your theory, and without proof it sounds absolutely ridiculous. You're trying to tell me that this island is actually VERY inhabited when no one has seen any trace of pokémon anywhere? Where exactly are they all hiding? Are you implying their invisible?" He said sarcastically. God, I hate when he talks like that. I'm still just his ignorant little child.

"I have my eyes, and I saw a Zorua. That's my story and I'm sticking to it."

"honey," my mom jumped in, trying to be the good cop to dad's bad cop, "we believe you, we really do."

_*cough cough* Bullshit *Cough*_

"It's just that without any real proof, your theory is just a theory. How are we supposed to know your eyes just weren't playing tricks on you?"

"Maybe because I've been seeing that Zorua every day since I got here?"

"Oh please," My dad interjected, "I've never seen any here for six years, you expect me to believe that you've seen one every day. Why does it hide from us but not you?"

"It could have something to do with the fact that I'm actually likeable."

"WHAT DID YOU JUST-"

"Yoink!" I yelled as jumped up from my seat and slipped right in between my fuming parents.

"You get back here!"

Holding a middle finger high above my head I sprinted into the woods and out of sight, leaving my parents with dumbfounded looks on their faces.

"This isn't working." My mom said, with a sad look on her face.

"Oh really, I had no idea. Nothing we do gets through to the boy, he's just too stubborn."

"Well maybe we're not the right people to get through to him." My mother suggested.

My dad furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "What are you implying?"

"We could call your brother."

His eyes widened at his sudden realization. Of course, it was so obvious. If Rowan couldn't do it, no one could.

"I'll make a call, we can have him in Sinnoh by tomorrow."

**Author note: Yeah I know, a lot of back story in this chapter, just bear with me, the next one is where the story really begins. but this is needed for a set up.**


	2. Behind Closed Doors 1

**Author Note: the description, as I now realize, does a crappy job of explaining everything, so, to all those returning to this, just so you know EXACTLY what your getting into, check the description in the beginning of chapter one.**

**This is the chapter where everything starts to get weird, and it will only get stranger from here. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!**

I sat on the dock with my legs hanging over the edge, suitcase on one side, guitar on the other. It was another perfect day in paradise, just like the one before. Thankfully, it was the last one I'd ever see.

My parents had finally gotten it through their heads that there was nothing they could ever do to make me bend to their will. Therefore, they hired someone else to do it. While I was out snoozing in the forest and avoiding work, they were busy forging my signature on a contract and making arrangements to have me moved to a house in Sandgem town.

Apparently, I was to work as a research assistant to Professor Rowan for the next two years.

If it meant getting off this God forsaken rock, I was all for it.

Now, don't get me wrong, I still have no interest whatsoever in being a researcher and would end up hating my job. It's stupid, it's boring, and in some cases, downright cruel. However, I'm being taken out of isolation, I finally get my guitar back, and, with luck, I'll never have to see my parents' ugly mugs ever again. Sounds like a win to me.

Even so, in an effort to annoy me one last time, they were making me sit on the dock for hours while I waited for the boat to dock.

To quote my dad "You don't LIVE here, so why would we let you STAY here?"…yep…that's some quality parenting right there.

I leaned back against the floor, using my back pack as a head rest. If I had to wait here, I might as well be comfortable.

My eyes started drooping as I suddenly felt very tired.

_You'd think after an entire day of sleeping yesterday I'd be wide awake right now…why I'm I so…_

My arms fell limp to the ground as I suddenly passed out.

…

_When I opened my eyes, I found myself in what can best be described as a dark version of Alice in Wonderland. I was standing on a seemingly endless black and white checkered floor, yet there were no walls and no ceiling, just empty blackness in every direction._

_There was a bright flash of light behind me, and I turned around to see a humungous, blue door._

"_God I hate these dreams." I thought out loud. "The dreams where you know your dreaming yet can't figure out how to wake up. Whatever, not like there's anything else to do."_

_I reached for the handle and jiggled the knob, only to find out that it was bolted shut._

"_Well that's just pointless." I lamented to myself. "Why would there be a door here if I can't go through it?"_

**Fear not young one.**

_I flinched at the sound of a deep bellowing voice. Of course, what it said only caused me to freak out more. Come on, A loud voice comes out of nowhere and you expect me not to be startled._

"_Who are you?"_

**My name is unimportant at the time, but fear not. If you wish to enter, you must sign the contract.**

"_What con-" _

_Before I have time to finish the question, a bright light blinds me, forcing me to cover my eyes. When it subsides, there is a table in front of me with a tiny piece of paper and an old fashion quill and inkbottle._

"_uh…ok. That was weird."_

**You'll get used to it.**

…_Was he implying I'd be coming back here? …I sure as hell hope not. This place is WAY too weird for me._

_I reach for the quill as I read the only line on the supposed contract._

"_I chooseth this fate of my own free will." I repeat. "What the hell does that mean?"_

**Do not worry. It simply says that you take full responsibility for your actions.**

"_I probably shouldn't…but why the hell not?" I say with an apathetic shrug. "It's a dream after all and I do this already anyways."_

_I quickly sign "Marcus Emerson" on the slip and drop the quill back into the bottle._

**Excellent!**

_I flinch yet again at the sudden rise in volume. "Geeze, do you have to be so loud?"_

_He doesn't answer. Instead, the contract begins to give off a faint blue glow which quickly turns into another blinding light._

_In a flash, the table is gone and in its place is a card floating in mid-air. I snatch it up and observe it._

_It kind of looked like one of those fortune telling things. Gah…what are they called…tarot cards?_

_The back of it was almost all blue, except for the marking of a black skull, etched in the center. On the other side there was a picture of…well actually I don't really know what it is. It kind of looks like a lantern, but instead of a flame in the center, there was a half closed eye._

**You have gained the power of the Hermit Arcana, the power to guide those who are willing to follow towards the truth. A light in the darkness for all those who need it. This is a very special gift, use it well.**  
><em>I groaned and facepalmed. "You do know I didn't understand a word of what you just said, right?"<em>

**All in good time, young one, all in good time.**

"_Screw this, I'm getting answers right here, right now." I said as I turned towards the door. I jiggled the handle and smiled when I saw it was unlocked. Without hesitation, I kicked open the door and—_

…

"MARC!"

"OOF"

I woke up as I had the wind knocked out of me by little black fuzz ball.

I looked up at the small fox that was standing calmly on my stomach.

"Jesus, Zorua," I gasped as I tried to fill my lungs, "what the heck was that for?"

She glared at me with her piercing red eyes. "If you think you're leaving without saying goodbye you've got another thing coming."

I smiled at this. "Didn't figure you to be one for sappy goodbyes. And how did you even find out?"

She smirked mischievously and began wagging her tail. "You were right about one thing, your parents are idiots. I slipped right under their nose without them ever noticing."

I raised an eyebrow. "You spied on my parents?"

"Well when you didn't show up yesterday I figured you might be in trouble."

I felt a little guilty that she risked getting caught because I decided to take a nap, but pushed it to the back of my mind.

"Still, you shouldn't put yourself in danger like that, it could…" My voice trailed off as I suddenly realized something.

"Wait a second…are you speaking English?"

Her eyes widened at the question. It took a while for us to notice, but we could understand each other perfectly. I mean, sure, we knew each other well enough to understand the gist of what the other is saying, but this was different.

We could fully and completely understand each other, no translation, gesturing, or facial expressions needed.

_Does this have something to do with…No…no no, no. It was just a dream, there has to be something else._

We sat quietly as we thought it over. "Well," Zorua said, trying to break the tension of this awkward phenomenon, "this will make things a heck of a lot easier."

I raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"

"Well, I was wondering how I was gonna ask you something, but now I can just come out and say it." She sat on my lap, facing me and looked up at me with puppy-dog eyes that had years of practice behind them. "Marc, can you take me with you?"

I was a bit taken aback by her question. "Where did that come from?"

Her tone became slightly angry and she furrowed her eyebrows. "You know very well where this coming from. You've been my best friend for six years and now your leaving me on this stupid island with a clan that is too scared to even show their face. There's nothing to do, and nothing for me here, so please, take me with you."

"Zorua…I" I made the mistake of looking down into her eyes, which were now back to their cute innocent selves, and my heart melted.

_GAH…cuteness overload…can't…resist._

Finally with a heavy sigh I nodded. "How can say no to that?"

She jumped up, wrapping her forelegs around my neck and tackling me to the ground.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you." She screamed while attempting to give me a hug. In reality, all she was doing was cutting of my air supply.

"Zor...ua…you know…I love ya…but…I love…breathing more." She released me and hopped off my chest. "Sorry." Without even turning back, she unzipped my back pack with her mouth and began digging through my things.

"Zorua, what are you…" I stopped as I heard a click and she disappeared in stream of red light.

_Wow…she must really not like it here._ _Not that I do, but you'd think SHE'D miss this place just a little bit._

I began reaching for my pack to let her out again, but ended up deciding against. I doubt my parents will be coming out here to check on me, but if they did, it would be best if she wasn't in view. Not that they can actually do anything about it, but they'd be begging me to turn her into a little lab rat. It's best if I wait until we're on the boat. Besides, I need some time alone to think about what the fuck just happened.

Seriously, where did that come from? I sign a contract in a weird dream and now I can talk to pokémon? What was it he called it…Hermit Arcana?

_Alright, alright, easy Marcus, breathe. Now, there has to be a logical explanation to this. There always is, you just have to think of it. Maybe it was a coincidence, I mean, Zorua and I have been best friends since the day I got here. Maybe we somehow bonded well enough to break the language barrier…ok, that sounds stupid too, but a hell of a lot more logical than "I signed a contract with a dream stalker"._

It wasn't a good explanation, but I only had two, and I tended to lean toward the more logical one. Still…can't rule it out as a possibility. Note to self, Google search tarot cards and Hermit Arcana at next point of convenience.

*HONK*

I snapped my head toward the direction of the foghorn that sounded out from across the waters. My eyes widened at the sight of our transportation.

Completely forgetting about my current situation, I drop my jaw and shout.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!"

In actuality, I knew exactly what it was, but how the hell was that even possible?

Slowly making its way towards the docks was a freighter. Granted it was a completely empty freighter, but there was no way something that big was my ride, it couldn't even dock in this pitiful little wooden bridge we call a port. Yet, as it approached, it stopped a few inches from the edge, right in front of me.

All I did was stand there, taking in what the hell just happened.

I snapped out of it as a man in a crew uniform leaned over the edge and peered down at me.

"Oi, you." He spoke with an accent I couldn't quite place. "Are you Marcus?"

I opened my mouth to answer, but found that my speech was failing me. So instead, I just gave him a nod.

"Well come on then, get that arse moving, lad. We're on a tight schedule."

I scanned the hull for some sort of rope or ladder but found nothing.

"How the hell do I get up there?"

The crewman blinked and then face-palmed. "Sorry lad, I forgot, be right back."

He disappeared for a few seconds and returned with a rope ladder which he threw over the edge. The end of it landed at my feet. I stared at it for a few seconds, then turned to him again.

"What about my bags, I really don't feel like making three trips up and down this thing."

He responded by tossing a net overboard. I blinked in confusion, but then saw what he was getting at.

"Thanks man."

"No problem, lad."

I wrapped my suitcase and guitar up in the net, which he immediately began pulling up, and slung my backpack over my shoulder as I climbed the ladder.

I wasn't even halfway up before the ship started moving again, causing my feet to slip. I quickly looped my arm around one of the steps and pulled my feet back onto the ladder. Regaining my balance, I found myself staring at my house, which was slowly vanishing in the distance.

If this were a movie, this would probably be the moment where I realize that I'm actually going to miss my parents and I begin to cry over the fact that I won't see them ever again. However, given the circumstances, I lifted my middle finger in the air and held it until my house disappears from view.

"Oi, lad, get moving, I can't stand here all day."

"Yeah yeah yeah, I'm coming."

I barely made it over the edge of the boat before he began giving me a walkthrough.

"Right, so, we'll be dropping you off at route 219 just south of Sandgem. It should take about ten hours, and we'll inform you and your uncle when we enter route 220. As for your bags, just leave 'em there, we don't have any rooms for you and if you decide to move them yourself, they might get in our way. If that happens, we have no problems at all throwing them overboard. If you want to talk to your uncle, he and a research assistant are at the bow of the ship. Now, I have to get back to work, so, good luck."

He didn't give me any time to respond and took off towards the back of the ship.

I gave an apathetic shrug and reached into my bag for Zorua's pokeball.

With a flash of light, the small fox was standing on my shoulder. I immediately noticed something was wrong. Her eyes were wide and she was shivering rapidly.

"Something wrong?"

She clenches her eyes shut and shudders. "Never put me in one of those glorified prison cells EVER AGAIN!"

Although she was supposedly scarred for life, I couldn't help but laugh. "You do realize that YOU'RE the one that dived into it head first, right?"

She didn't reply. Instead, she jumped down, grabbing the pokeball from my hand, ran to the edge and spat it out.

"Geeze, overreaction much?"

She turned around and shot me a glare. "You want me to cram YOU in one of those things?"

I shrugged. "Point taken. But I'll have you know that I would have only used that during emergencies…and by that, I mean dying on the floor."

"Yeah yeah, I haven't forgotten your rant about keeping living things locked up. This just ensures that never, under any circumstances, will I have to go back in one of those things. Anyways, you mind filling me in on where we are?"

"Well," I began, "apparently my uncle has a friend with a freighter and he called in a favor. We'll be back on dry land in ten hours…give or take. Also, the professor himself is up at the front of the ship…so let's just stay here for a while."

"What, don't you want to meet your uncle?"

"HELL NO!" I say with a shake of the head. "If you were going to meet the man who you will undoubtedly hate for the next two years, wouldn't you put it off as long as possible?"

She closed her eyes and shook her head. "Always the negative one, aren't we? Won't you even give him a chance?"

I sat down and leaned against the edge of the boat. "Well…he IS my dad's brother…so that changes my answer from "HELL NO", to, "hell FUCKING no". If he wants to meet me, then he'll come looking, until then, I'm getting some sleep."

Without another word, I closed my eyes and let my head fall onto the ledge of the boat. It was a total lie, of course. God knows how much sleep I've had in the last forty eight hours, but anything to put off meeting Rowan, I will gladly accept.

I heard Zorua sigh and flinched when I felt her crawl into my lap. I half opened an eyelid to see her curled up in a little ball. I was a little taken aback by that. I mean sure we were friends and all, but this just felt a little weird.

Still, I didn't have that heart to move her. She just looks so peaceful when she's asleep. Deciding to ignore it, I leaned my head back and closed my eyes again.

I began to feel very tired for no reason at all. I tried moving but it seemed like all the energy was being sapped from my body. I managed to get in one last conscious thought.

_Wait a second…this is… just like…before…_

**Author Note: BAAAAHHH, CLIFFHANGER. I was originally going to put this and the chapter after it together, but it kinda took me forever to just write THIS. So, I separated them for you guys. (your welcome). What do you think? To weird? To Boring? Hard to follow? Should I stop asking questions and let you review? OK. Please R&R, because it makes me happy. And when I'm happy, I write more. Sorry for the wait.**

**This is Morris, signing out.**


	3. Behind Closed Doors 2

**Back from a massive writers block. Sorry about the wait, guys, but I had a million plot bunnies whispering ideas in my ear and I had to figure out which ones to listen to. Now that I've got everything for this story all outlined, I can get back to writing. I'll try to update every week or so.**

**also, sorry if this seems a bit rushed, but i was trying to make up for lost time. I promise, everything wll be back to normal in the next chapter.**

**anyways...ADALANTE!**

* * *

><p><em>My eyes snapped open to find I was once again in the dream. Just like before, the door was right in front of me, only this time, nothing was stopping me.<em>

_I turned the knob and began to open it, but as soon as I did, I heard a voice I did not recognize coming from the other side._

"_This is unacceptable, Arceus! We all agreed to help you because we would get to choose the new protector! IT'S IN THE FUCKING CONTRACT!"_

_Wait a minute…did he just say Arceus? As in…the pokémon God, Arceus! What the hell did I get myself into! I didn't have time to figure it out before I heard an all too familiar bellowing voice_

**Yes, and it also stated in the contract that should your choice be unavailable or unsatisfactory, I would choose for you. I am sorry, but I do have to question your judgment on choosing an elderly man. A person of that age can not hope to defend himself against the shadows, even WITH the abilities you will give him.**

_I heard a low growl before the other voice spoke again. "You told us to choose someone in Sandgem town that represents your Arcana. Therefore, I chose the smart old man, BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT YOU TOLD ME TO DO!"_

_Arceus sighed. _**You have yet to understand your own Arcana, young one. The Hermit does not represent an intelligent elderly man.**

"_SO YOU GO AND CHOOSE A FUCKING KID!"_

_I had to try and hold back a gasp at my sudden realization. The fight was about me. I was debating whether or not to back away or stay to listen more, but my choice was soon made for me._

**I'd like to point out that this conversation is no longer private.**

_The door flung open by itself and I was soon staring into what looked like some sort of circular court room. The door led to the center of the room, which was surrounded by numerous desks and chairs. In the center of everything, stood Arceus, and a lucario._

_I could somewhat make out a smile on Arceus' face, but the lucario was giving me a death stare that could have given my father a run for his money._

_I hesitated for a second, unsure of what to think, but I quickly snapped out of it and stepped inside._

_As I approached Arceus, he gave me a formal greeting._

**WELCOME BACK YOUNG ONE!**

_I flinched at his booming voice. "Geeze, again with the volume increase. Can you tone it down just a bit? And what's all this about being a protector and defending against shadows?"_

**Patience young one, in time you will-**

"_SCREW THAT!" I yell, scaring myself more than either of the others in the room. "I'm not gonna let you keep me in the dark about this! If I'm supposed to be fighting something, which is what you were implying just a second, I want to know what it is, and how to do it."_

_My eyes snapped to the lucario as I heard him make an audible "tch"._

"_And you, what the heck is YOUR problem. If you have something against me, SAY IT TO MY FACE YOU PUSSY!"_

_I didn't think it was even possible, but his eyes narrowed even more as he scanned me from head to toe. He turned back to Arceus. "Arceus this kid is-"_

_Something in my head snapped as he ignored me. I don't know what compelled me to do it, but I brought my arm back and delivered a punch to the side of his muzzle before he could speak any further._

_He quickly recovered and grabbed the collar of my shirt, pulling me forward and getting right up in my face._

"_Give me one reason why I shouldn't rip your throat out!"_

"_First, this is all a dream for me, so that won't do shit. Second, and more importantly," I say as I shove his arm away. "You're the one being a fucking coward. Stop hiding behind Arceus, grow a pair of balls, and say it my face!"_

"_Fine." He said, stepping forward and trying to look intimidating. "Arceus recommended that I choose you two days ago. So, I watched you yesterday to see if you were worthy. All I saw was an arrogant, lazy, stupid, selfish child who blew off his job to go sleep in the woods. THAT is my problem."_

_I blinked in disbelief. "You think you know everything about me after watching one day? My God…and you think I'm the stupid one."_

_He only offered a growl in response as he shoved me away from him, but I wasn't done yet. "You can't know someone just by watching a random day in their life. It's like reading a random page out of a book. It won't make any sense and you just jump to conclusions. So don't pretend that you know who I am before you've even met me."_

_He shot yet another glare at me. "Alright, let's add hypocritical to the list."_

"_What are you talking about?"_

"_Were you not just doing that to Rowan?"_

_I froze. His words hit me hard, but I did my best to regain my composure. "Th-that's completely different." I stammered._

"_Oh really…how?" He asked, already knowing the answer._

_I opened my mouth to say something, but couldn't think of a reason. Damn it, he's right._

**Enough of this you two! **_Arceus finally stepped in. _**Now, like it or not you two are partners now, so-**

"_Excuse me, WHAT!" I blurted out. The lucario rolled his eyes. "Shut it, kid I don't like this anymore than you do."_

**AHEM!**

"_Sorry." We both grumbled simultaneously._

**Right…now, as I was saying. Like it or not, you have to work together if you are to survive the trials ahead of you.**

"_Excuse me," I said, raising my hand. "But can we get to the part where you explain what exactly you want me to do?"_

_The pokémon god shook his head in annoyance. _**Patience is a virtue, Marcus.**

"_When it involves whether I live or die, I'm pretty sure it doesn't apply." I retort._

"_Actually," The lucario jumped in, "I have to agree with him on this one. I mean, I've known of the shadows for years, and even I have no clue what you want us to do."_

_The legendary rolled his eyes. "Very well…the shadows-"_

* * *

><p>"Excuse me." I was woken up as a girl nudged my shoulder. Unconsciously, I snapped my eyes open into a glare, startling her as she jumped back. "Whoa…testy much?" She asked. I quickly scanned her over. She was about my age with long brown hair that fell down to her shoulders. Her jeans and t-shirt were all ripped up, like she was just in some sort of fight. She was now looking at me with a look of concern and fear.<p>

Normally, I would have apologized right away, but I was a bit to busy processing what just happened. _God Damn it! Can't I just once finish that dream!_

_**Get over it, kid.**_

I felt a chill go down my spine as the lucario's voice echoed in my head. "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING HERE?" I screamed, waking up Zorua in the process as she toppled off my lap in fright.

It took a few seconds to process the situation before I realized that no one else could hear that. I looked back to the girl who now looked like she was about to wet her pants.

"I'm sorry…I…I…I…I gotta go." She took off sprinting towards the front of the boat.

"Wait!" I called after her, "I didn't…aw shit."

_**Smooth one, Romeo.**_

I slammed my head with my fist. "Will you shut up and get out of my head?"

"Uh…Marcus?" I turned around to see Zorua staring at me with a cocked eyebrow. "Is there something wrong? You're acting really weird, even for you."

_**OOO, strike two, would you care to go for a third?**_

_Will you be quiet?_ I thought back, testing to see if that would work.

_**Ah, now you're getting it. Congrats, you've learned telepathy.**_

Trying to uphold two conversations at once, I answered Zorua. "I'm fine, just a really bad dream."

_**Tch, that's an understatement.**_

_SHUT UP ALREADY!_

Zorua wasn't convinced. "Then why did you just scream at that girl?"

"Er…like I said, bad dream. It took me a few seconds to realize I was awake."

_**Liar**_

I didn't even dignify that with a response as I tried to change the subject. "So…how long were we out?"

She looked up at the sky for a second. "Um…I think about nine hours."

_Wait…what!_

Finally taking a look at my surroundings, I found that the sun was now on the other side of the sky and disappearing over the horizon.

_How the…when did…huh?_

_**That was Arceus' world. He controls everything, including time. But if might suggest something. I think you should go and apologize to that girl.**_

…_your right…I hate that._

_**I'm just smarter than you, deal with it.**_

_Shut it. Now, while we're talking, will you mind telling me HOW THE FUCK YOU GOT IN MY HEAD!_

…_**the hell should I know? I'm in the same boat you are. Might I say, it is EXTREMELY cramped in here.**_

_What do you mean cramped?_

_**Well, I haven't sorted through everything yet; most of its just parental issues like most teenagers, but you got some pretty big shit going on in here.**_

I discreetly rolled my eyes so Zorua didn't see. _I'm currently talking to a pokémon who's taken up residence in my head…I think THAT is my biggest issue right now. Actually, while you're in there, you might wanna go through my memories. Might give you a better understanding of me._

_**Whatever, not like I have anything else to do. Be back later.**_

_Good riddance…_

Finally regaining my composure, I motioned for Zorua to follow me. "Come on, I need to go see that girl before she tells the entire ship I'm a psychopath."

"Uh…ok."

I took a few steps before I felt a big fuzz ball drop on my shoulder. "What the…. Geeze, you have your own legs, you know?"

She smirked. "I'm lazy, and you have a comfy shoulder. Deal with it." I couldn't help but grin, but still, I reached up and flicked her ear to tell her to get off. "OW, hey!" She yelped as she took a swat at my head, causing me to stumble a bit. "GAH, watch it! No hitting the driver, it's dangerous."

"Yeah, for you." She giggled as she took another swipe.

"Alright, that's it, rides over."

I grabbed her sides and plopped her down on the ground.

"Hey!"

"Well, you should of thought of that before you sta-OOF" I felt her tackle me from behind sending me into a face-plant. I looked up just in time to see her smirk before she took off cackling like a maniac.

"Why you little…GET BACK HERE!" I scrambled to my feet and took off sprinting after her. She may have been fast, but I was faster and easily caught up. I grinned as I closed in on her. "Gotcha!" I said as I reached down to grab the scruff of her neck. However, she doubled back, tripping me in the process. This time I was prepared for it, landing on my shoulder and somersaulting back onto my feet. I quickly turned around and began chasing her once more.

She slipped around the corner of the control bridge toward the front of the boat. This time I had her, there was nowhere left to run. I sprinted around the corner and skidded to a stop at the sight before me.

The girl who I had scared earlier now had Zorua in an attack hug. "You are soooo cute!" She squealed as she somehow managed to tighten her already suffocating hold.

Zorua somehow managed to cry out for help. "MARC…get her-GAH-off of me."

I gave her a mischievous grin and shook my head as I leaned against the side of the bridge.

She shot me a glare. "You asshole! Gah, hey watch it. Get off of me. GRRR."

_Alright, I've seen enough._

"Excuse me" I called to the girl. She snapped her head around, eyes wide with fear.

She started stammering at an extremely fast speed. "Oh, I-I'm sorry, is she y-y-yours, I-I d-didn't know, I j-j-just saw and, err, I'm sorry."

I put my hands up in an effort to calm her down. "Relax, ok, I'm sorry I screamed earlier. You woke me up from a nightmare and I wasn't all there at the time."

She looked at me worriedly, as if she didn't trust me at all, so I tried one more time.

"Can we start over?" I asked outstretching my hand, "I'm Marcus, but you can call me Marc."

She looked back and forth between my eyes and my hand, checking to see if I was being truthful. Slowly she reached out hers as well. "Alyson, one of Rowan's research assistants. Nice to meet you."

Meanwhile, Zorua took the chance to break free from her stranglehold and resumed her place on my shoulder.

"Have fun?" I asked with a barely contained grin.

She glared at me as she tried to catch her breath. "Sleep…with one…eye open!"

A snickered a bit. "Well you should have thought about that before you went running off." Alyson looked at me questioningly.

"She doesn't like being touched." I explained.

"Oh…I'm sorry. I didn't know." She apologized.

"No, she actually deserved it." I said a smirk. Zorua huffed and turned away from me.

"Oh don't give me that, you know you did."

"Yeah, well, you should have just let me ride on your shoulder."

"And you should be less lazy." I retorted.

"What, so this is my fault?"

"I didn't say that but it sure as hell ain't mine."

Alyson interrupted again. "Uh, I'm not trying to pry or anything, but you two are pretty close, aren't you?"

I cocked an eyebrow. "Well…yeah. Why do you ask?"

She gave a shy smile. "Because you bicker like an old married couple."

"We do not!" I denied. I looked over at Zorua to see her reaction, but it wasn't the one I was expecting. She was looking away, as if nervous about something and…holy shit! Is that a blush…is she blushing? I didn't have time to ponder this, though, as Alyson continued. "Yeah, you definitely do. What's her name, by the way? I don't think you've said it yet."

The question took me by surprise. I haven't thought about naming her, as I really didn't see that she was mine to name. I know it's customary for a trainer to name their pokémon, but I've been calling her Zorua for all these years so it kind of just slipped my mind.

"Uh…she doesn't have one. I just caught her this morning."

Alyson's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "But I thought you said you've had her for a while."

"Well, yeah," I answered. "It was a small island, we saw each other every day, and I don't like to catch pokémon by force. When she saw I was leaving she asked to come with. Heck, she practically dived into her pokeball. The idea of naming her never came into my head."

I turned to Zorua, who was now looking like her normal self again. "How about it, you want a name?"

She mulled it over in her head for a few seconds before answering. "Well, I'm not exactly opposed to it. Just promise me you'll pick something unique, because if the names Zora or Zoe even cross your mind I swear I will kill you."

"Noted…alright, give me some time I'll think of something."

I turned back to Alyson. "So…you said you were an assistant to Rowan? What's he like?"

"Well, he mostly keeps to himself around me. Same goes for the other assistants, I suppose, but I think he'll want to spend some more time around you. You know, being that you're his nephew and everything."

I sighed. _Yippee for me._

"What's with the long face?" She asked, seeing my depressed expression, "Aren't you excited to see your uncle?"

"No." I answered rather bluntly.

"What? Why not? I mean, he told me that you were practically begging for this job."

I smirked at that. _So my parents lied again…oh goody._

"It's kind of a long story." I said, not really wanting to dump my problems on someone I just met.

Alyson checked her watch. "Well, we have about 45 minutes until we dock, and Rowan's helping the captain until then, so I'd say we have some time."

_Shoot...she's got a point._ "You really want to know?" I asked, trying to imply that I'd rather not talk about it, but she nodded her head anyways.

"Alright," I said, sitting down and letting Zorua drop to my lap, "you might want to sit down, this is gonna take a while."

Over the next half-hour minutes, I proceeded to tell her everything. And by everything, I mean EVERYTHING! From my first grounding to me finally snapping, to my parents isolating me from the world, all the way up to now. While it felt bad to dump all my problems on a complete stranger, I felt like a burden was being lifted off my shoulders. I don't know, maybe venting really does help.

I finally finished my long explanation and she was sitting there, looking out onto the horizon, thinking very hard about something.

"Well?" I said, "…that's it."

She stared off for a few more seconds before turning back to me. "Alright…I got nothing."

"Wait…what?" I asked a little confused.

"I thought it was just something about being nervous." She explained, "I thought I could help, but honestly, I don't even know where to start to help you fix THIS."

"Why would you try to help me?" I asked, "You don't even know me?"

She smiled. "Despite Rowan keeping to himself, everyone at the lab is just a big family, and families help each other. Like it or not, your one of us now."

I thought for a second. _Ah family, huh?...well it sure beats mom and dad…I could get used to that._

I found myself with a smile on my face and even though I've known her for less than an hour, I had a feeling I had just made a friend. "Thanks, Alyson."

She smiled back and put a hand on my shoulder. "Don't mention it."

I was enjoying the moment, until out of nowhere, I heard the sound of breaking glass. The others must have heard it too, because as soon as it sounded they started looking around for what caused it.

All of the sudden a tiny ball of blue light came zooming out of nowhere and stopped in front of Alyson. This one was followed by another…and another…and another. They accumulated for five seconds before they all flashed. In place of the balls of light, there was an all too familiar card, floating in mid air. My eyes widened. _What the fuck, another tarot card?_

Alyson's jaw dropped, but she didn't say anything. She grabbed it and flipped it over, revealing the top side to me. It was like my card, but different. Pictures of black vines bordered the edges and in the center was a black outline of a crucifix.

I could hear Arceus' voice whisper in the back of my head.

**You have awakened the power of the priestess arcana…your first ally. She will need your guidance to succeed. Teach her well.**

"What was that?" Zorua yelped. "Did anyone else hear that?"

Being too stunned to form any sort of sentence, I offered a nod as my reply. The card seemed to dissolve into Alyson's skin and she began to freak out.

"What the heck is going on? Where the heck did that come from? Who was that?"

I wanted to answer her…truly I did. I just didn't know how. I heard Arceus say one last thing before his voice vanished.

**And so the journey begins.**

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><p><strong>HEY! Sorry to leave you with another cliffhanger, but I promise it won't be left like this for long. I'm no longer sidetracked, I WILL continue. So please, stick with it for just a little longer. Why, because the next chapter has the first fight. YAY BATTLES! ^_^.<strong>

**-morris, signing out**


	4. Down with The Sickness

**Happy New Year everybody! My new year's resolution is to stop procrastinating and get back to writing this. Sorry for the lateness, once again, and I'm not gonna have some excuse this time, I got distracted, and I apologize.**

**From here on out within this story, there will be P.O.V switching, as there are will be to many characters to keep track of if I don't.**

**Also, I usually don't do this, but, MILESTONE! I got my first flame for writing a pokemon/human story, special thanks to "canyouspellpi" for being an ignorant asshole and he can go fuck himself ^_^.**

**seriously, I warn you at the beginning what's going to take place, so why bother saying you don't like it in a review, if you don't have positive encouragement or some sort of constructive criticism that I can use to help me, then don't bother hitting the review button.**

**From now on I'll keep updates about this and any other stories I may be writing on my profile.**

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><p>Ch 3: Down with The Sickness<p>

* * *

><p>"<em>The world is a scary place, now that you've woken up the demon in me." (Disturbed)<em>

* * *

><p>It was now getting rather dark on the ship. The sun had set and now the first beams of moonlight were beginning to take its place.<p>

We all stared wide-eyed at the spot where just seconds ago, a tarot card hovered in the air. I didn't dare speak a word. Not that I could think of anything to say. What COULD I say. I was completely and utterly screwed.

It would have been fine if Arceus didn't go shooting his mouth off, but no, He basically just announced "Hey, he knows everything about this, so ask him for help." Which was completely untrue as I have yet to learn anything about my situation.

Still, I couldn't avoid it forever, so I spoke up. "Alyson…are you al-"

She held up a hand to cut me off, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. "Ok…I'm fine…I'm fine. Now, Marc, if you would kindly explain to me what just happened, I'll try not to completely freak out."

I blinked in disbelief. Did she seriously just shrug that off?

Zorua decided to chime in at the worst possible time. "Yeah, I think that-"

"HOLY SHIT YOU TALKED!" Alyson shrieked as she jumped about a foot backwards.

I sighed. _THERE'S the freak out I was looking for._ I stood up and put my hands on her shoulders, trying to calm her down. "Listen, I can explain everything, even the fact that you can understand pokémon, but not here, later when we-"

"BULLSHIT," She interrupted again. "A random…thing…just dissolved into my hand, I'm hearing voices in my head that aren't my own, and pokémon are speaking English so I want an answer right now!"

"What's that?" Said a deep voice coming from the side of the ship. I turned around to see a man approaching. He was rather old, and had thick white hair complete with handlebar mustache. He wore a blue sweater vest, a pair of black pants, and a trench coat. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but there was something about him that seemed familiar. Then…I saw it…well…them, more precisely.

As he stepped closer, I got a better look at his eyes. They were dull, grey, stern eyes. Last time I saw them they were kicking me out of the house. I knew exactly who he was, and my suspicion was only confirmed when Alyson spoke up.

"Oh, uh, h-hi Professor Rowan," She stammered. I tried to think of something to say, but my mind completely froze. I was trying, I really was, but I just couldn't get passed those eyes.

Luckily, Alyson was there to take over. "Just out of curiosity, how much of that did you hear?"

"Well," he started as he shoved his hands in his pockets, "I think I jumped in around the time you mentioned a talking pokémon. Ah, this must be it."

He passed me by without even noticing me and plucked Zorua off of the ground. "So then, you can talk, can you?"

She didn't say anything, but instead started to try and squirm free. Still, Rowan held her with a firm grasp. "Relax, I'm not going to hurt you."

She whined a bit more, desperate to break free, until I just couldn't watch anymore. I snatched her out of his hands and cradled her in my arms, causing him to turn around and give me an awkward look. However, it was quickly replaced by a small smile.

"Ah, you must be my nephew. I'm Professor Rowan, it's a pleasure to finally meet you, Marcus." He said as he extended his hand.

Careful not to drop Zorua, a hesitantly shook his hand. For a second, I thought he would be fine. After all, he hasn't pissed me off or screwed me over yet, and he had a good ten hours to do so. But then, he had to go and ruin it.

"I swear you are the spitting image of your father." He said continuing his grin.

I had a muscle spasm so bad that I nearly crushed his hand and I quickly jumped back.

His brow furrowed in confusion. "Quite a grip there, is something wrong?"

"Er…sorry." I muttered, trying not to make eye contact. "Muscle spasm, I get those sometimes."

It didn't seem like he bought it, but he accepted the answer all the same. "And, judging by your actions, I'm guessing the Zorua belongs to you."

"Yeah, she…" My voice trailed off as I looked down. What was meant to be something to calm her down had turned into something completely different, as she was now nuzzling against my chest with her eyes shut tight.

"Uh…Zorua?" I questioned. She opened an eyelid. "hmm."

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing."

I blinked before placing her on my shoulder. "You are acting so weird today."

"Hey, you hugged me first." She retorted.

I ignored her comment and tried to explain the situation to Rowan. "She just doesn't trust you and you freaked her out a bit, that's all. Don't take it personally. It took me about a year to break that shell."

He nodded. "Understandable, but as I plainly just heard, she speaks in her native tongue, so would you mind telling me what all the fuss was about."

…_shit._ Alyson shot me a worried look, knowing we were probably screwed. I racked my brain for an answer until I just randomly blurted something out. "Ventriloquism."

I wanted to facepalm as soon as I said. Was that really the best I could come up with?

Rowan cocked an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"Ventriloquism," I repeated trying to just roll with it, "I heard about it, thought I'd give it a try, didn't have a puppet handy so I asked Zorua to do it."

_**Way to pull that one out of your ass, kid.**_

_HOLY SHIT!_

I jerked once again as the Lucario in my head decided to make an unwanted entrance.

"Another muscle spasm?" Rowan questioned.

"Uh…y-yeah." I stuttered. "You know, I actually have some stuff that helps in my bag. I'll go get it and meet you when we dock. It'll be in, what, ten minutes?"

"Well, yes but-"

"Great, see you then." I said, spinning around on my heel and fast walking away as quickly as humanly possible.

Zorua nudged my cheek, "Marc, what's going on? If you had a twitching problem I would have-"

"Zorua," I interrupted, "I'm sorry, not to sound rude or anything, but I've only got ten minutes to think about this and I need every second."

She looked a bit hurt, but nodded anyways. I took a deep breath to calm myself as I neared my suitcase, but it didn't last.

_**Hate to break it to you kid, but you have a lot less than five minutes.**_

_What are you saying?_

_**I'm saying we have a shadow incoming. It must have sensed the power surge when that girl awakened to her arcana. You have, give or take, thirty seconds.**_

_WHAT!_

Instinctively, I unzipped my suitcase and started digging through it.

_God damn it, where is it!_

I ripped through all of my clothing and then finally, I laid my hand upon a switchblade I had swiped from my dad. I pressed the button and the sound of the blade coming out of its hilt already had a bit of comforting effect on me.

_**Kid, believe me, that's not gonna do shit.**_

_It's better than nothing._ I retorted.

Before he had a chance to argue back, the boat began shaking uncontrollably. I looked up to see a huge wave heading towards us. It crashed into the side of the boat, and Zorua shrieked as we were sent sprawling to the ground.

When I looked up, I immediately took back my last statement. Instead of a wave, there was a humungous gyarados towering over the edge of the ship, but it was by no means normal.

First off, as far a gyaradosses come, this one had to be at least twice as big. The scales were a mix of crimson red a jet black and in the moonlit night, it seemed to be giving off some sort of dark aura. However, its change in color wasn't what threw me off. What freaked me out beyond belief was the fact that in place of its eyes were two empty sockets.

"What the fuck is that?" Zorua asked, not really seeking an answer, but more just out of shock.

I didn't have any time to gawk, though, as it wound up, charging what I'm guessing was a hydro pump or a dragon rage. Whichever it was, I wasn't exactly planning on finding out.

I, once again, scooped up Zorua and took off running. I didn't get too far, as another shockwave sent me stumbling to the ground again.

Turning back, I found that it was the latter of the two attacks and there was no a gaping hole in the side of the ship.

_That is NOT good!_

_**Yeah, ya think!**_

The hull quickly began filling with water and I could slowly feel the ship start tipping sideways, turning the floor into a ramp. An alarm started to sound on the boat, probably signaling that it was time to get the hell out of here.

"WE HAVE TO MOVE!"

I began sprinting toward the other side of the boat. I saw crew members piling into the remaining lifeboats and that there were only a few left. Alyson and Rowan were each already in a lifeboat and they were screaming incomprehensibly at us before deploying. I imagine they were saying something like, "HURRY THE FUCK UP!"

I was running as fast as I could, but the floor was only getting more and more slanted and I found myself climbing a steadily increasing hill. I was almost there, and though I would make it, but one of the crew members slammed into me, knocking me to the ground. I kept trying to get up but I kept slipping and getting stepped on.

When I finally regained my footing, the boat was at a 45 degree angle, and there was no way that I would have made it before they had to drop. In one last attempt I burst forward towards the lifeboats, but they were already deploying.

I knew it was hopeless, but I'd be damned if I was going to let BOTH of us get stuck on this thing. I glanced down at Zorua for a split second.

"Sorry about this."

"What?"

Before she even knew what was happening, I took her small body in one hand like a football and chucked her towards the edge.

"HEY WHOA!" She screamed as she went sailing through the air. For a second, I thought I missed, but I saw a pair of arms reach up and catch her as she dropped over the other side.

At that point, it was becoming too steep to stay in one spot. I began slipping towards the water, but through a bit of luck, I managed to land on what was once the wall of the bridge. I scanned around the area.

Crew members who weren't as lucky slid helplessly to the water and the shadow gyarados was smashing them one by one with its tail. What was once a chorus of screams and yells was slowly dwindling as the number of survivors depleted.

I gritted my teeth in anticipation, knowing I'd be joining them soon if I didn't come up with something fast.

_Hey, any ideas?_

_**One, but don't expect it to work.**_

_I DON'T CARE JUST TELL ME!_

_**OK…uh…you remember your arcana?**_

Without even having to think about it, I pictured the card I had received earlier today. The lantern with the eye inside of it. With a familiar blue glow, the card appeared in front of me.

_Was that supposed to happen?_

_**YES! Now break it!**_

_What!_

_**BREAK THE CARD!**_

As if my hand moved on its own, I took my switchblade and stabbed it through the center. There was the sound of shattering glass and a bright flash of light that forced me to cover my eyes. When it subsided, a familiar jackal was standing beside me.

"How did you…HUH!"

It turned and snarled at me. "Do you want my help or not?"

The gyarados slammed the boat again and I almost fell off of my perch on the side of the wall.

"YES I WANT YOUR HELP!"

His snarl turned into a smirk, and without a response, he was off. Using what I'm assuming was extreme speed, he somehow managed to run across the now perpendicular floor toward the shadow.

It didn't even have time to react as the lucario jumped on its head and latched onto its head crest.

It began freaking out and thrash around, desperate to shake off its attacker, but he held a tight grip.

I was wondering what he was doing but after a few seconds I realized he was charging an aura sphere.

With one final lurch forward, the lucario finally let go of the shadows head. He flew forward and spun around to face it as he fell, releasing his aura sphere sending it straight into the shadows wide open jaws.

I shielded my face as the shadows head, quite literally, exploded. I still didn't like that guy, but he sure as hell knows how to fight.

I was about to cheer for him until I saw two things. One, was that before he hit the water, he dissolved into thin air. Two, the gyarados was now falling…in my direction.

"Oh SHIT!" I screamed. Without thinking, I jumped from my platform seconds before it came crashing down. I barreled down toward the water, unable to make my body straight enough for a safe landing. I hit the water in a full on belly flop, knocking the wind out of me while effectively sending my body into a state of shock.

Out of reflex, I gasped for air, only to have water fill my lungs. I desperately tried to swim to the surface, but the combination of my temporary paralysis and the force of the ship sucking me under made that impossible and I only sank deeper.

Having no air, and no way out, I completely blacked out.

Zorua P.O.V

"Let me go!"

"Geeze, stop squirm'in, yer safe now."

After Marcus literally chucked me into a lifeboat, I was stuck with five crewmembers who really should have been keeping their hands to themselves.

I don't care if he saved me, if I wasn't leaving him when he left the island, I sure as hell wasn't going to bail on him now.

After finding a point of leverage against his elbow, I pried myself loose from his grip and dived for the water.

"Gah, fine then, go get yurself killed, then." The man yelled after me.

I wasn't paying attention though, I was busy kicking my way back to the ship.

As I neared the end of the ship, I heard the familiar sound of shattering glass, and a few seconds later a large explosion. As I turned the corner around the ship, I actually had to stop and stare to take in what I was seeing.

A now headless gyarados, slamming into the side of the ship and Marcus jumping headfirst into the water.

Even over all the confusion, I still heard him hit the water with an sickening crack.

"MARC!"

I dove underwater and hopelessly tried to paddle my way toward him. It was pitch black underwater, but being a dark type, I could still see perfectly. He was sinking fast and I wasn't swimming quickly enough.

The water stung my eyes, my lungs felt like they were going to burst, but I didn't care, I was going to save him or die trying.

Unfortunately, It seemed like the latter at this point. My vision was starting to blur and my muscles were about to give way. As I clenched my eyes shut, I heard another shatter, this time right in front of me.

I would have gasped were I not underwater. Another one of those weird card things was in front of me, but it was different than the one before.

It had a picture of a crescent moon on it along with a sky full of stars. For some reason, every bone in my body was telling me to try and break it. With my last bit of strength, I opened my mouth, ignoring the bitter taste of salt water, and bit down on it hard.

Out of nowhere, I felt some sort of rope wrap around my waist, and I was zooming through the water. The next thing I knew, I was on a lifeboat with Alyson, an unconscious Marcus, and a very confused crew.

_How did I…_

I turned around to see a Milotic peaking out of the water and watching over us.

"I…you…saved us?"

The large sea serpent smiled at me. "I wouldn't be much of a guardian if I didn't, now would I?"

"Guardian?" I repeated.

"Not now, later. Now, you have other things to worry about." She answered as she pointed at Marcus.

Alyson bent over him and checked his pulse. "He…he's dead."

She desperately looked to the crew, but they all looked at their feet, not sure what to do. I turned back to the milotic to see if there was anything she could do, but she was already gone. I could feel tears welling up in my eyes.

"That's it…THERE'S NOTHING WE CAN DO!" I shouted.

Alyson turned to me. "Zorua, I'm sorry."

"NO! I just got him back, I'm not losing him again!"

I hopped up on his chest and stomped down, hoping to Arceus that she was wrong and he was just unconscious.

"Come on! WAKE UP!" I screamed, on the verge of tears.

I took a swipe at his face, slapping his cheek, but his head just lolled off to the side.

"NO, ARCEUS DAMN IT! WAKE UP!" I brought my front paws up and slammed them down on his chest.

I was half scared, half relieved when I saw that it actually worked. All of the sudden he went into a coughing fit and a ton of water came shooting out of Marcus' mouth. He didn't even wake up, but he was breathing, which was good enough for me.

It seems like everyone let out a breath they had been holding in, including myself. Knowing he would be alright, I hopped off of his chest, and looked around. For the first time in ten hours, I saw dry land, and was never more grateful that I lived on it.

I wasn't sire if she was speaking to me, or an unconscious Marcus, but Alyson spoke up. "Well, it wasn't exactly the welcome you were expecting, but we made it. Welcome to Sinnoh."

* * *

><p><strong>Okay, so it wasn't so much of a battle as it was escaping from something that will kill them, but you know what, I finished it without there being an enormous fricken cliffhanger this time, so I'm happy.<strong>

**In case anyone missed it, Zorua now has the moon arcana, didn't really feel like having arceus announce that to the world at that point and time, but since you have no clue what an Arcana is anyways, i doubt you'll care about that.**

**BUT FEAR NOT! because in the next chapter, i actually start explaining things (GASP!). OK, so next chapter, 3 new characters are intriduced, Shadows and Arcanas are explained, and Zorua finally gets a name. fun times abound.**

**However, believe it or not, this STILL isn't as strange as it gets, so if you've been keeping an open mind through this, keep it like that for just a bit longer.**

**In case no one noticed yet, this story is a cross-over with another video game, anyone know which one. (I will bet you five internet dolars that no one will get it.)**

**One last thing…I need a new title. It was never going to be permanent and it's an OK title, but it really doesn't fit the entire book, but rather a small important section of it. So, if anyone has an idea, run it by me, otherwise, I'll think of one myself.**


	5. My Life for Hire

**It seems I have already broken my new year's resolution and procrastinated once again…Oh well. However, this chapter is the longest one I've written for anything ever…over 7000 words. I'm exhausted.**

**If you're still with me, you're a trooper, and as promised (almost) everything will be explained in this chapter, and please, if you don't get something, ASK ME! I don't want people reading through chapters not knowing what the hell I'm talking about. Heck, I'll even put a glossary at the end of the chapter if it helps.**

**Now, for the answer to the question.**

**Ultimatedeps: sorry, I've never heard of that, actually.**

**Nobodyreallyimportant: I expected that answer since you referred me to bloodtail. Good game, but no.**

**SuicuneLover: There are a few elements from gale of darkness, however, not what it's mainly based off of.**

**Archshadow24: I would give a hint if someone didn't guess it on the first try.**

**And that just leaves…**

**Kalakar: Yay, another cult gamer ^_^. Persona series was right, and there are elements from all of the games, although persona 3 and 4 are the ones that are most present.**

**If you like this story and own a ps2, buy those games (3rd and 4th are the best) on ebay (you won't find them in a regular store, maybe play n trade or gamestop, but even that's stretching it.)**

**Anyways, enough of my useless author notes. You're not here to listen to me ramble.**

**ADALANTE!**

* * *

><p><strong><span>Chapter 4: My Life for Hire<span>**

Marcus P.O.V

…Well, here I am again. Standing on that black and white checkered floor, surrounded by pitch nothingness, in front of that damn blue door again.

…This is the third time in one day, and by now, I am completely used to it. In fact, I knew very well that if I wasn't dead that I'd come back here. Although, maybe I am dead. Maybe this is some sort of weird purgatory. Damn, I hope I'm not stuck here for too long. Well, I guess it would be okay if that damn lucario wasn't here.

_**You were saying?**_

I groaned in disappointment. "God damn it…will you get out of my head already?"

_**Would if I could, but I can't. Now stop complaining and get in here.**_

I really didn't feel like talking to him, but like it or not, he was right. We _were_ in this together. And besides, I still needed answers which I'm pretty sure he could easily provide me with.

I opened the door and stepped into the…what the heck?

The room I had entered before was completely gone and replacing it was…well, if I had to guess, I'd say it was some sort of green room. Like the one you see backstage to a concert or something. It was a small, circular room with only three pieces of furniture in the entire thing: one table and two lounge chairs. Sitting forward in one of them was the spiteful jackal who had taken up residence in my brain.

On the other end of the room was another door, although it was anyone's guess what was on the other side, and finding out wasn't exactly my top priority right now. However, the one thing that really caught my attention were all of the pictures hanging on the walls. They were all rather random drawings and I took the time to examine most of them.

_A skull, a sun, a star, a flame, a…wait, that one looks familiar._

The picture I had stopped at was a drawing of a crucifix with some sort of ivy surrounding it. I racked my brain to figure out where I had seen it, and then it hit me.

I whirled my head around, searching for another one, and almost immediately found the one I was looking for.

…the lantern with the half-opened eye…it was my arcana…whatever the hell that is.

"If you would just sit down," The lucario announced, apparently ticked off by all my browsing around, "You'd find out all you want to know a lot quicker."

I rolled my eyes and took a seat opposite him. "Alright then…and I assume you know everything I need to know."

"Well don't just assume everything, kid. It'll get you killed one day."

Normally, I would have laughed at that, but taking recent events into consideration, it was completely possible.

"So what _can _you tell me?" I asked, slightly irritated.

He held up his paw. "First things first."

I groaned. "Now what, going to criticize me for not doing anything against that gyarados?"

He suppressed a growl, and continued. "Actually, no. The fact is, we might be stuck together like this for quite some time."

I mentally cursed, completely forgetting that he could hear me, and he finally released the growl he'd been holding in.

"I don't like it either, kid, but that's just the way it is. There's no use complaining about it. So, I propose a truce."

I raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"We obviously don't like each other, but we aren't going to get anything done if we're at each others throats every time you come here. So we call a truce, set all our differences aside until we're done sorting everything out. Deal?" He asked, sticking his paw out.

I looked at it in skeptically, but I figured if it would get him to shut up, it would be well worth it. "Deal." I said, taking his paw in a thunder grip that I knew he couldn't return.

He either ignored it or didn't even notice as he continued. "Right, I guess I'll get to it then. Now, what do you know about aura?"

_Aura? What does that have to do with anything?_ I thought, but still gave an answer.

"Well, it's supposedly the life force of the universe, right?"

"Somewhat, yes, but you can't explode a gyarados' head with life force."

I remembered the gory battle that happened earlier and nodded. "Point taken."

"Modern science says that it's simply vibrations emitted by living things, but that's not true either. In fact, no one really knows what it is. The best way to think of it is energy that is emitted from your soul."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. "Soul energy? I'm sorry, but that sounds like it's straight out of some crappy video game."

"That's why we call it aura and not soul energy." He pointed out. "As cheesy as it sounds, that's the best way to describe it. You can either accept that or not, but it doesn't change the fact that that's what it is. Now, bear with me here. Do you know anything about tarot cards, whatsoever?"

I chuckled a bit. "Only that they're completely stupid. Going and getting your fortune told is just paying to have some idiot tell you what you want to hear."

He sighed. "When you're asking some stupid human to do it, yes, that is true, but when you get one from someone who actually knows what they're doing…"

He paused as a deck of cards appeared near his left paw. "…it can be extremely accurate."

He placed his paw on the edge of the deck and slid it out across the table. Then, in one motion, he flipped the end card, which in turn, flipped all of the other cards in the deck as well.

"Each deck consists of 22 major arcana. Each one has different meanings and can change based on the situation. For example," He said, sliding a familiar card in my direction, "the hermit arcana. In the simplest of explanations, it's a card based on wisdom. In some cases, it can be interpreted as a time for introspection, using ones past experience to make a decision later in life. However, in another situation, it would mean that you will have to guide another onto the right path. You follow so far?"

I tilted my head to the side, trying to process the info. "Yeah, I guess…but what does this have to do with aura?"

"I was getting to that. You see, a persons soul is shown through their emotions, their personality, how they make decisions, that kind of stuff. That being said, there are numerous types of energies a person can emit and quite a few types of auras as well…22 to be exact."

_Wait…twenty two…_ I thought. "Oh! I get it, so the arcana are a way showing what type of aura a person uses."

"Precisely. Glad you catch on quickly. However, a person's aura cannot be determined by simply one card. Many types of aura are mixed together to form a persons personality traits, for instance," He slid a few more cards forward. "Most of your aura would be from the hermit arcana. However, you also use a bit of the devil and strength arcana as well, and in some cases, the death arcana."

I twitched a bit at the death arcana. It was the picture of a scythe being carried by the boney hand of a skeleton. I would have to assume it didn't actually mean death, but whatever it did mean, it couldn't be good.

He must have seen my reaction because he explained. "Relax. It's not as bad as it looks. It mostly just represents a change in someone's life."

I nodded, still not completely convinced, but we needed to move on. "So, if the arcana are just considered categories of aura, what did Arceus mean when he said that I awakened it?"

"Well, that's where the shadows come in." He explained.

"Alright then, what's a shadow?"

"Well, a soul is a tricky thing to figure out. Think of it in your case. No matter how much your parents tried to warp you to be someone you weren't, you still stayed true to yourself, right?"

"Yep, and a load of good that did me." I mumbled.

"Still, you knew exactly who you are and what you wanted. Some people aren't as strong minded as you are. So, when they come into contact with outside influences, their mind tells them to be something they are not, while their soul stays exactly the same. Therefore, their body completely rejects their soul. If a person completely rejects their own soul, then, basically, it leaves."

I furrowed my eyebrows. "What do you mean it leaves?"

"They expel their own soul from their own body, rejecting everything that makes them…well…them. The body becomes in empty shell with very little emotion left. I believe humans call it depression. The person just loses the will to live and either dies or decides to commit suicide. Meanwhile, the soul, having no home, manifests into a physical form, in other words, a shadow."

"So…that's it, if someone starts to pretend to be someone their not, they become a shadow."

"No no no. That's way too simple. If a shadow was created every time someone lied the entire world would be dead. It's not when they pretend to be someone they're not. It's…well. It's when they themselves forget who they really are. And I was just using your life as an example, there are plenty of other ways a person can reject their soul, but they're too numerous to count."

"Ok…but still, what does that have to do with the arcana?" I asked, getting a little impatient with his roundabout way of explaining things.

"Relax, kid, we're almost done here. Every now and then, shadows tend to get out of hand. Whether it's just coincidence or there is some sort of catalyst that's causing people to reject their souls, there needs to be some way to keep them in check. That's where we come in."

I blinked. "Wait I'm confused, what do I have to do with this explanation."

I shook his head. "Not we as in 'you and I', we as in me and the rest of the arcana."

"Hold on, _you're_ an arcana? What the hell does that mean? I thought they were just-"

He cut me off. "Yes, I am an arcana…or rather, a master of one. When Arceus said you awakened the hermit arcana, he was talking about me. Got it?"

"I think so…"

"Good. Now, to answer your initial question of what this has to do with you. Being that the arcana guardians have no physical body of our own, we're forced to tie our souls to that of a living being, in other words, you."

"So, what, you just go tying your souls to random people who are stupid enough to sign a contract?"

He groaned. "Listen kid, no one forced you to sign it, and you would have ended up with me either way, so don't go complaining to me. I don't even know what the damn thing was for, anyways."

Damn…just one more thing Arceus left out. "Ok, so I have a question. How _did_ I end up with you anyways? Did Arceus just force you into my body, or what?"

He rolled his eyes. "Unfortunately for my case, yes, but that's not what normally happens. You see, there were only three of us that Arceus could persuade at the moment. Me, the one who's with the girl you met on the boat, and the one that's with your little fox friend."

"Wait, wait, wait. Zorua has one too? When the hell did that happen?"

"Around the time you were drowning, she awakened to the moon arcana. She saved your life in fact."

I froze at that. How could she have saved my life? She was on the boat…wasn't she? Unless…she swam back. God damn it, why did she do that. I know I should be thankful for her saving my life and everything, but why the hell did she come back? She was safe already.

I went deep into thought for a few second before I was snapped back by the lucario. "Focus, kid. You can worry about your girlfriend later."

That definitely got my attention. "Excuse me?"

I chuckled a bit. "Come on, you can't tell me you don't see the way she acts around you."

"She's not my girlfriend…is that even legal?"

"Yep, not exactly accepted though."

I shook my head. "Whatever… just get that out of your head, because it's not happening."

"Whatever you say, kid, whatever you say."

I shot him a glare which only made him laugh more, but he quickly put a lid on it. "Right, anyways, I'm pretty much done with what I wanted to tell you, you have any questions?"

"Yeah…kind of a big one…how in the hell do you expect me to fight shadows?"

He rolled his eyes. "You really haven't pieced two and two together yet?"

I shook my head, eliciting a sigh from the annoyed jackal. "Alright, let me slow walk you there. Lucarios are able to use aura as a weapon, aura comes from the soul, and our souls are connected, therefore…" He left it open for me to finish.

"I can use aura?" I asked.

"Ding ding ding, we have a winner!" He said in a rather snarky tone.

"…you don't have to be such a douche about it." I grumbled.

"Sorry, pure reflex." He said with a shrug. "Anything else?" He said in a way that told me he was trying to end this conversation.

"Yeah," I said. "Do I get any say in this whatsoever?"

"What do you mean?"

"Come on, I'm eighteen, I just got my life back, and I have no clue what the fuck I'm doing, do you really expect me to willingly put my life on hold to go and fight these things?"

He shot me an annoyed glance. "Fine then, you don't have to do anything you don't want to do."

I raised an eyebrow. "Seriously?"

"Sure, but I'll tell you this. Right now, due to the fact that you have two souls in one body, there's too much aura for you to control right now and it's just spewing out at random. It'll take months, maybe even years for your body to adapt. Do you have any idea how many shadows you're going to draw to you, especially with three of you in the same area?"

I gritted my teeth and clenched my fists. "So basically you're saying these things are going to come after us no matter what?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying." He said, crossing his arms.

I mulled it over for a few seconds. It wasn't really all that much of a choice. It's either I ignore this and risk being killed by shadows, or I accept and have a chance of surviving."

"Fine…I'll do it. Just…what exactly do you want me to do about this.

"Well…honestly I'm not sure. The way this usually works is Arceus calls all the Arcana together and each chooses a person to be linked to. However, he could only find the three of us. The rest are missing somewhere. You're best bet would be to try and find them first."

"How the hell do you expect me to do that?"

He shrugged. "I wish I knew, kid. I really wish I knew. Whatever we do, we better do it fast, because the shadows are growing at an increasing rate and it's getting hard for Arceus to keep everything in check. Once we have a team built up, we need to find out what's causing all of this and fix it."

I shook my head. "Something tells me it won't be as simple as your trying to make it sound.

"Well, no sense complaining about it." He said, pulling a humungous book out of thin air and slamming it down in front of me. "Start reading."

I took one glance at the book and dropped my jaw. The cover was a picture of the hermit arcana, and I could only imagine that it was some sort of manual on how to use aura from the hermit arcana.

I looked back up. "You have got to be kidding me."

He simply smirked and walked out the door on the other side of the room. I made a move to follow him, but there was a flash of blue light and both doors completely disappeared.

…_fucking bastard._

_**Hey! We have a truce, remember.**_

I cracked my knuckles. _Fuck off!_

_**Whoa, testy. I think I'll just leave you alone for now.**_

I begrudgingly sat back down at the table and started reading.

After a few hours, however, I honestly forgot that I was being forced to do this. I was never one for school, but this was at least interesting. Learning fighting techniques, ways to control aura, seeing things without the use of eyesight. I would have killed to have a class like this at my school.

Of course, I was only really skimming it and didn't go into too much detail, but I took note of a few different things that might come in handy if I get caught off guard. Even then, it was only theory. I would have to practice once I woke up.

I also came across that thing I did earlier. When I broke the card and released the asshole from my brain. Apparently it's called a persona summoning and is supposed to be used as last resort only. While he's out doing is thing, I'm left defenseless until he returns, then I'd be royally screwed if any more shadows decide to come after me.

So, I shouldn't just stick to learning aura, the smart thing to do is to learn to fight for myself if I ever have to let the jackal loose. I wonder if there are any places that teach fighting in Sandgem.

Whatever…moving on.

After skimming through most of the book, I decided to just check what was left for me to read. I found at the back of the book there were quite a few pages with portraits of people and pokémon. Apparently they were everyone who was put into my position in the past.

…and then, a sudden idea hit me.

_Hey, asshole, you still there?_

_**Where exactly would I go?**_

…_point taken, any chance I can look at any other of these books._

_**You mean books of other arcana? Why?**_

_Just answer the question._

There was a brief silence, and I had a pretty good idea I knew what he was doing.

_**Ah, looking for a name for your girlfriend?**_

_SHE'S NOT MY-_

_**Yeah, yeah, I heard it before. Don't sweat it kid.**_

The book in front of me dissolved into thin air and another one quickly took its place, this one had the picture of a crescent moon on it. I smiled as I flipped straight to the back of the book.

I flipped through the names rather quickly, most of them were guys anyways, but then, I stopped at a picture of a red haired woman with flawless tan skin and read the name and the brief description of who this person was.

A smile crept its way across my face. "…perfect."

* * *

><p><span>Still Marcus P.O.V<span>

After what felt like decades later, I finally woke up…and soon wish I hadn't. There was a blinding ceiling light that kept me from opening my eyes all the way, the smell of detergent quickly overloaded my sense of smell, I felt fiberglass casts around both of my arms, but they only hooked around my thumbs so I still had unrestricted control of my hands.

Still, one thing I didn't expect. I felt restless. Normally it takes me hours after I've woken up to actually…you know…wake up. But I felt a huge burst of energy.

I sat up rather quickly, ignoring the fact that my muscles were screaming at me to stop. I heard someone yelp in surprise. I rubbed my eyes and squinted through the bright light. As I expected I would be, I was in a hospital. I was in a completely white room complete with one bed a table and a few chairs. There was a girl I didn't recognize with her IPod in, completely immersed in something she was scrawling in a notebook.

However, that wasn't who yelped. In fact, I don't think she noticed me get up at all. I looked around to find who had been the source of the noise, and didn't have to search long before a black ball of fur leapt onto the couch and barreled into my chest, knocking me right back down on my back.

I groaned a bit and then glared at the little fox that had slammed into me. "Geeze, Zorua, still sore here!"

"Good!" She yelled at me while taking a swat at my face.

"Ouch, what the hell was that for?" I said, rubbing my cheek.

"For scaring me half to death! YOU ALMOST DIED YOU ASSHOLE!" She said, nearly bursting into tears. She clenched her eyes shut and moved closer up to my face, nuzzling my cheek which took me off guard, but I didn't object to it.

"I…I'm sorry?" I asked, more then really telling her.

"Shut up and hug me you idiot." She grumbled.

Sitting back up, I cradled her in my arms. She almost immediately relaxed and took to nuzzling against my arm. Feeling she was comfortable, I scanned over the girl in the chair. She had long, light brown hair tied back in a ponytail and a pair of glasses with square lenses that covered her bright blue eyes, giving her that whole smart girl look that usually came with being a research assistant…that is, assuming she was one, I mean, she definitely wasn't a nurse and I can't imagine another reason a random girl would be sitting in my hospital room.

"Uh, excuse me." I said, trying to get her attention by waving my hand, but it was completely useless as she kept her gaze facing downwards.

Zorua squirmed a bit, releasing herself from my hold. "It's ok, I got this."

She hopped down from the bed, onto the chair, and up onto the table. Almost instantly, the girl flipped her notebook shut, as if embarrassed by what she was writing. Zorua gestured over to the bed and the girl glanced my way. Instead of a surprised reaction like I was expecting, she simply smiled and took out her ear buds.

I immediately found out why she couldn't hear me. As soon as they left her ears, I could faintly hear the pulse pounding beat of a heavy metal song blasting out of her headphones. Still, as she wrapped her cord around her IPod, she didn't say anything. So I decided to start the conversation.

"Uh…hi, my name is-"She held up a finger to cut me off and started flipping through her book. Finding a page, she held it up for me.

**Hi Marc(us), Alyson told me your name and everything, and I'm an intern at the lab. My name is Coralline, but everyone just calls me Cora. To answer the questions I'm pretty sure you're going to ask. You're at a hospital in Sandgem and you've been out for five days now.**

I tilted my head a bit, and despite the fact that I had been unconscious for five days I simply had to ask. "…um, sorry to ask, Cora, but…what's with the notebook."

She placed it down and made an **X** with her fingers across her throat.

"Um…so…you're a mute?" I asked, hoping that was the right answer. She nodded, smiling.

"Ok…so. If it's ok for me to ask…how did I get here? I mean, they couldn't bring an ambulance through the woods and I think carrying me seven miles without a stretcher would have made any injuries worse."

She flipped to another page in her book, this one containing a drawing. The first thing I noticed (Which it shouldn't have been, but I couldn't help it) was that she was a damn good artist. Every detail was exact and, although only done with a regular pencil, not a space on the page was left uncolored.

The second thing I noticed was the absurdity of how I was transported to the hospital. It showed a rather tall guy wearing a bandanna riding a fearow over the woods that separated Sandgem and the sea. In the giant bird's talons, was me. Of course, I had been strapped down to gigantic piece of plywood that served as a stretcher, but that doesn't make me feel any less uneasy about it. I did, however, laugh slightly as I noticed Zorua clinging to my shoulder for dear life.

She climbed back into my arms, and I simply had to ask. "Did that really happen?"

She shuddered a bit. "Unfortunately…yes."

I chuckled, not because I found it funny, but because I really didn't know what else to do. I HATED heights. Even just little ones, just the mere fact that I had been that high up makes me uneasy.

I tried to change the subject to get my mind off of it. "Wait, I thought pokémon weren't allowed in patient rooms for hospitals…some crap about getting in the way of the doctors."

She smirked and nodded as she flipped a few more pages. This picture was much more comical. It was a comic strip depicting Zorua as a boxer, slamming her fist into the jaw of some guy wearing a white coat and stethoscope and the letters **K.O** above it.

I smirked and looked at the fox in my lap. "You tackled the guy, didn't you?"

She giggled. "Maybe."

I shook my head, imagining the scene in my head. As I began to think, though, the door flew open and a man wearing a beat up leather jacket and a red bandanna stumbled backwards until he hit the wall opposite the door. I recognized him as the guy riding the fearow in Cora's picture. Following him was a very pissed off Alyson, and an even more pissed off zangoose (Or equally pissed off, I can never tell, as zangooses just naturally look pissed off).

The guy on the floor started first. "Oh come on, give me a break."

The zangoose leapt forward, grabbing his shirt collar with its paw. "OFF LIMITS! DO YOU HEAR ME?" Despite all the rage in her voice, I could tell it was a female.

"Oh come on" the guy complained, "She came onto me first."

Alyson stooped over him and grabbed his hair through the bandanna. "Listen, Danny, I have nothing against who you are or what you do, but this is a hospital god damn it. There are people here who are sick and dying, SHOW SOME GOD DAMN RESPECT!"

He smiled. "Alyson, as I said, she came onto me, and this is some premium tail we're talking about." He said chuckling.

The zangoose held a claw up to his face. "I'm going to do you a favor and pretend that pun was unintentional. Now I say again…OFF LIMITS!"

_Pun…how was that a pun?_ I thought. But shook it off and tried to get their attention. "Um…excuse me. Guy in the hospital bed has no clue what's going on."

All three of them glanced at me questioningly until Alyson finally registered what was going on. "You're awake!" She said, running over to give me a hug.

"GAH, STILL SORE!" I shouted, trying to push her away.

"Sorry!" She quickly apologized as she jumped back.

The zangoose retracted her claw from the man's face. "You're lucky the new guy is here to bail you out." She grumbled. She walked around the other side of the bed and stuck out her claws for what I'm assuming was a handshake. "Hey, I'm Aria, and the perv over there is Danny. It's a pleasure to finally meet you."

I shook it, careful not to cut myself on her deadly fingernails. "Marc…pleasure to meet you too." I said with a smile. She tilted her head to the side, as if she was confused.

"Something wrong?" I asked.

"Well, you haven't freaked out yet, so there's that." She explained.

I raised an eyebrow. "Why should I be freaking out?"

She stared at me for a few seconds and then smiled. "Oh yeah, you and I are going to get along just fine."

I was about to question what the heck she was talking about when the guy on the floor stood up. "You meet many talking pokémon where you come from?"

I stared blankly for a few seconds before it hit me, and when it did, I really had to resist the urge to facepalm. Had I really acclimated so quickly to understanding pokémon that I couldn't recognize when one was _actually _speaking English? I mean all the signs were there. She was talking to a person who couldn't understand pokémon and he was responding pretty damn clearly and the way she approached me made it seem like I would have no problem understanding her as well. Of course, even if she didn't speak English, I would still be able tell what she was saying, but she didn't know that. I was really going to have to be careful about how I react to pokémon talking from now on.

"Well, I know it's not common," I tried to cover up. "but I wouldn't think it's all that _uncommon_ either. I've heard about pokémon learning English before, it's perfectly normal, isn't it?"

Aria raised her claws to the ceiling in an overdramatic fashion. "THANK YOU ARCEUS! YOU SEND ME SOMEONE WITH A BRAIN!"

Everyone else in the room laughed and I forced a chuckle, but the mention of Arceus kind of killed the mood for me.

…damn bastard.

Once the laughter had died down, I changed the subject. "Ok…Danny, was it?"

The bandanna guy nodded. "Yeah, what's up?"

"If you don't mind me asking, what was all that about?"

He started grinning like an idiot. "Oh, nothing. Girls come on to me all the time and these two just get jealous."

"As if."

"Perv." Alyson and Aria said respectively. However, Aria continued. "She was fourteen, she didn't know what she was doing, and I will NOT let you take advantage of that."

"Really, because she seemed to know pretty damn well what she was doing when she started rubbing her face against my crotch."

"Wait, wait, wait," I interrupted, "Some girl just came up to you and started rubbing her face on your pants…"

"Yeah? What about…oh that's right, I forgot you don't know yet." He said, crossing his arms.

"Know what?" I asked.

Everyone went silent, waiting for someone else to explain what was sure to be some awkward topic. Alyson took the initiative. "Well…Danny, he…he likes pokémon in a different way then most people."

I raised an eyebrow. "Um…ok…what the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Danny dropped his arms and stepped forward. "Stop trying to sugar coat it and just spit it out." He said, turning to me. "I'm what most people refer to as a furry."

"Um…I'm sorry, I still don't follow. What's a furry?"

Danny blinked in disbelief and then turned back to Alyson. "Geeze, you were right, this guy really did live under a rock."

"Technically I lived on it." I corrected, "But that doesn't change the fact that I have no clue what you're talking about."

To answer my question as bluntly as possible, Cora tossed her notebook in front of me. It was much more crudely drawn than either of her other sketches, but I still can't believe she had drawn it in a matter of seconds. It was a pairs of a poorly drawn Danny sitting in a chair with something that I would have to guess was a vulpix digging its nose into his crotch. In big bold letters above it were the words **he fucks pokémon**

My first instinct was to blurt out 'is that even legal?', but that question was already answered by the jackal in my brain. So instead I just stared at it blankly before simply saying. "…Well alright then."

Danny came around to look at it and smirked. "Actually, Cora, it was an umbreon, but I'll let it slide because you weren't there."

She smiled and shrugged, reaching over for her notebook, which I gladly returned to her.

"Well?" Danny asked.

"Well what?"

"What's your opinion on this? I want to know if there's going to be another douchebag walking around the lab that I have to avoid." He stated rather bluntly.

I blinked a few times, thinking it over before giving my answer. "Look, I've never even heard of pokémon and humans having relationships until right now, so how can I judge what I know nothing about. I figure whatever you do on your time is your business, not mine."

He sighed. "Good, glad to know your not being a dick about it."

Alyson spoke up. "Oh come on, you can't blame people for not understanding."

"I don't, I blame them for being assholes about not understanding." He said with a half-hearted laugh.

There was a bit of an awkward silence where no one quite knew what to say. Luckily, no one had to as a doctor came in the room reading a report rather thoroughly. As soon as he entered the room, he took one look at the crowd and groaned. "You people again? God, how many times do I have to tell you, friends and family only?"

"We are friends!" Danny stated confidently. This kind of took me off guard due to the fact that we've known each other for all of fifteen minutes, but I would have felt like a jackass had I told him otherwise, so I just nodded.

"Regardless," The doctor continued, "Visiting hours have been over for three hours. Now, It's eleven O'clock at night, and my patient needs his rest. Everyone out!"

They all nodded as they said their goodbyes and headed out the door. Alyson stayed back for a moment though. "Marc, as soon as you're let out of here, we need to talk about that one thing, got it."

I knew exactly what she was talking about and nodded before she ran to catch up with the others.

The doctor turned a glare to Zorua. "That means you too."

He reached to grab her, but she snarled at him making him yank back his hand. He glanced at me. "Sir, can you please control you're pokémon? We have yet to locate her pokeball and she's been causing a nuisance every time I come in here."

"Do you try to throw her out every time you come in here?"

"Yes. Hospital policy states that-"

"She's not in anyone's way so just leave her alone and she'll leave you alone. As for her pokeball, it's somewhere at the bottom of the ocean, and she's staying here as long as I am."

He gritted his teeth and nearly ripped his report in half at my defiance, but kept is cool and continued through clenched teeth. "Fine…anything else I can do for you now that you're awake."

I knew he was being sarcastic, but since he so generously offered… "Yeah. I've been out for five days and I'm starving, can I grab something to eat."

He scoffed at the suggestion. "You're not leaving this bed for at least another three days."

"Three days?" I groaned.

"_At least_." He reiterated. "You damaged nearly every muscle in your body, not to mention the numerous fractures in your arm and wrists. In fact, I'm surprised you can move at all without feeling pain."

I ignored telling him that I _did_ feel pain every time I moved, because that wouldn't really help my situation. "Well that's all well and good, but I'm still starving here."

He sighed. "I'll have a nurse bring you something from the mess hall, good enough?"

"Sure."

"Good. I shall notify your uncle that you are awake and he'll visit you in the morning. The nurse will be here soon with a tray of food. I'm going to leave now, DON'T GET OUT OF BED!" He said very sternly, slamming the door behind him.

I looked down to Zorua who was now glaring at the door. "That's the guy you tackled?"

"Yep!" She said, instantly cheering up.

"Good, something tells me that guys a jackass." I said with a smile.

Completely ignoring his instructions, I swung my feet around off of the bed, letting my hospital gown drop down.

I got up, feeling my legs burn, but still in nowhere near as much pain as he had made my injury out to be. I stretched out a bit and walked over to the window, opening the blinds to see a starry night sky with a crescent moon hanging in the air.

I smiled as I climbed back into bed, leaning my head back against the headboard and letting Zorua climb into my lap

…which reminds me.

"Hey, so I heard you got an arcana?"

She lifted an eyelid. "Yeah…and this damn Milotic won't let me forget it either, but how'd you know?"

I smirked and pointed to my head. "From the lucario bastard who won't leave _me_ alone"

I'm pretty sure I heard a small growl ringing in my ears, but ignored it as I continued. "You have the moon, right?"

She nodded. "And you have the hermit, right?"

I nodded, figuring that hers worked the same way mine did and no explanation was really needed.

"Well, just saying, I think I have a good name for you if you want to hear it."

Her ears perked up and she raised her head up. "I'm listening…"

"What do you think about Nyx?"

She furrowed her eyebrows. "What kind of a name is that?"

I smiled, knowing that she would love it once I told her what means. "Well, I'm not sure what language it is, but the basic translation for it is 'Goddess of the night'."

Her breath hitched and I could just barely make out a blush through her black fur. She stared down at her paws as she thought it over, but I already knew what the answer was going to be.

I was not, however, prepared for her response. Using my chest as a ramp to pull herself up, she planted a kiss on my cheek, causing me to blush furiously. "I love it…thank you." She whispered as she nuzzled into the crook of my neck and then sat back on my lap.

She noticed the change of color in my cheeks and giggled. "You were embarrassed by that?"

"N-no, not embarrassed, just….surprised. You're not usually that…expressive." I responded honestly.

"Well…don't get used to it. That was a one time thing." She stated as she curled up into a ball.

"Um…ok." I didn't really know how to react to that, so simply stroked my hand through her fur, eliciting a purr from the little fox pokémon. Even though I was wide awake, I could see she was falling asleep, so I brought my hand back and let her rest.

"Goodnight Nyx."

"'night, Marc."

I let my head droop to the side and looked at the stars, enjoying the scenery and somewhat wishing I had my IPod with me. I absentmindedly started humming softly and waited for a sleep that wouldn't come for quite some time.

* * *

><p><span>? P.O.V<span>

I stood on the dock in my black sweatpants and hoodie. Anyone who saw me probably thought I was either a gang member, or a poser. Either way, it kept people from bothering me, so I didn't mind. I stared at the wreckage out in the water with a pang of guilt.

_**Don't beat yourself up about it, it wasn't your fault, it was mine**_**. **A deep masculine voice bellowed in my head.

I twitched a bit. Still not used to this whole telepathy thing. _Yeah, but your not the one who lost control and created a monster._

_**But I should have known you wouldn't be able to control it yet. This is some pretty advanced stuff we were trying. It's perfectly normal.**_

_But I should have done something. I should have tried to help._

_**And what exactly could you have done from way out here.**_

_I…I don't know…_

_**Exactly. You have to learn to let things like this go. There's no use brooding about it.**_

I clenched my fists in anger. _I'm responsible for the deaths of over 20 innocent men…how am I supposed to brush something like that off?_

_**Well…try and look at the good that came out of this.**_

I made an audible 'Tch' and shoved my hands in my pockets. _…and that would be?_

_**We know you're not the only one.**_

I remembered watching the Lucario that had appeared out of nowhere and quite literally, ripped the head off of the shadow I had accidentally let loose.

_You're positive that was another guardian?_

_**Please, I know that hardass jackal anywhere. And I'm pretty sure that Milotic was an old friend of mine as well.**_

_Yeah…but…are they on our side…or their side._

…_**well…I guess we'll find out, won't we?**_

_That doesn't exactly reassure me. _I thought, turning around and starting the long walk back to Sandgem.

_**You really need to learn to be an optimist, or at least, not a pessimist.**_

_Force of habit._ I thought. I brought forth my tarot card, needing something to fidget with, and began twirling it in my hand.

_**Be careful with that, if it breaks I'll-**_

_Yeah I know…I'll be careful. _I reassured him, letting the card rest in my hand and observing the picture.

…the picture of a scythe being carried by a boney hand.

* * *

><p><strong>Oh come on, I couldn't answer all of your questions and then not raise a few more. I'm just not that nice of a person.<strong>

**Besides, this chapter was seven thousand words (that's nineteen pages exactly) and this is where it made sense to stop.**

**If you haven't guessed, working with these tarot card things requires me to do a shit load of symbolism through character personality, so, keeping that in mind, would anyone like me to put up a list of Arcana and what they mean. I know that some people don't care, and it doesn't detract from the story if you don't know what they mean in a tarot reading, but I found it interesting, creating people's personality and background based on what a tarot card means in a fortune telling. Then again, that's probably just me.**

**Anyways, let me know if anyone's interested and I'll post a glossary.**

**Until next time.**

**-Morris**


	6. Take a Look At Yourself part 1

**I apologize ahead of time, this was supposed to be a really long chapter going into character development for all the main characters, but because my laptop broke when I was almost done, I've rewritten a section of it and I'm splitting it into parts. So instead of in this chapter, the NEXT chapter is going to have a horrible cliffhanger that will make you all want to kill me.**

…

**Ch 6: Take a look at yourself (Part 1)**

"_**I can't help you, you don't stand a chance to make it.**_

_**If you really want help just take a look inside the mirror**_

…_**Tell me what you see" (Sum 41, Take a look at yourself)**_

**Cora P.O.V**

Silence

It really is a peculiar thing, and as a mute, it's something I tend to contemplate on a lot. For instance, You'd think that because I can't make any noise myself, I'd be used to silence, but that's not true. Not being able to talk just means that everyone else takes the opportunity to talk as much as possible. Conversation has become almost non-existent.

Well…except with Danny. Oddly enough, he's the only one who has enough patience to wait for me to write a reply. Who would have thought the only intelligent conversation I ever get is with a perverted pokephile.

…Shoot, I really shouldn't say that. I'm starting to sound like Aria. Although I can kind of understand her discomfort. He's a pokephile, she's a female pokemon, so I guess it's natural for her to feel a little awkward. Still, do they have to fight every time they see each other?

My phone vibrated, snapping me out of my little daydream. I opened my eyes and found myself in my room again. It's kind of odd how I can just completely zone out like that. How I can just lean back, close my eyes and let the world completely dissolve around me.

The first thing I realized was that my music was still blaring in my ear, but it was about fifty songs after I had first turned it on, and honestly, I hadn't been listening for a single moment.

…_fifty songs…what is that? A few hours? They should be done by now._

I cautiously took out one of my earbuds just in time to hear something no teenage girl should ever hear from their father.

"Oh God Karen, that feels so good!"

I shoved the earbud back in as I grimaced.

…and I thought it was bad when they were fighting. This was ten times more disturbing!

My father and his girlfriend were huge on this whole "Break up/make up" thing. One minute their at each other throats, the next, their fucking like rabbits. So whether it was screaming in anger, or pleasure, this house was never quiet.

…How ironic is it that the only silence I ever get is when my IPod is blaring heavy metal.

I finally took my phone out of my pocket and saw that I had a new message from Danny.

**Hey Cora, the new guy is finally getting out of the hospital today, so Alyson and I are going to drag him over to the clearing so we can meet Aria for lunch. You wanna come with?**

I smiled at that. Finally…something to do. God, I hate summer vacation.

I know that's a weird thing to think, but I _really_ hate it. Summer used to be a time for fun and friends with not a care in the world. But it's kind of hard to have fun when you don't _have _any friends.

…well…ok, three friends, four if you count the new guy, which I don't. Nothing against him, he seems like a nice guy and everything, it's just, I've only ever talked to him that one time and to call him my firend before I even really know him is just….weird. I think he feels the same way; he kind of reacted a little strangely when Danny so blatantly stated that they were already friends.

Then again, Danny considers anyone who doesn't have a problem with him a friend, so that was to be expected.

Realizing I hadn't replied yet, I snapped out of it and texted him back.

**Sure, I'll meet you there ^_^.**

_How long until lunch…like, three hours…plenty of time._ I leaned forward in my chair and scooted over to my desk. Opening the drawer, I took out a sketchbook.

…but not just any sketchbook. This one was different. This is the one I never let anyone, under any circumstances, look at. It wasn't just a sketchbook, it was a journal. It was the world through my eyes, and some of these drawings were…shall we say…less than pleasant. Such as the one I was about to draw.

I opened the sketchbook, skimming through it for a blank page. I had gotten into this really bad habit of just randomly opening it and drawing on the first blank page I saw. It was fine at first, but now It's ten times more frustrating to actually find a blank page.

Getting frustrated, I just gave up and grabbed my other notebook, figuring I'd rip the page out and staple it into the other one later. Taking out a perfectly sharpened pencil, I made the first line on the page and began sketching.

**Danny P.O.V**

My phone vibrated in my hand as I lay atop the covers of my bed, still completely exposed from last night's…*ahem*…activities. I eagerly opened up my phone to read my friends reply.

**Sure, I'll meet you there ^_^.**

I smiled at that. It was good that she was finally getting out of the house.

To tell the truth, I actually feel really sorry for Cora. Alyson was her only friend that was around her age and she graduated last year. Now she has to sit at home while the rest of us have to work for a living. Sure, she comes and visits us at the lab all the time, but it's not really the same when I'm focused on my work.

So, she'd become a bit of a hermit this summer, and never left the house, which wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for her father and his latest fuck-buddy. Seriously, what kind of people drive each other crazy just for the benefit of having angry sex with each other…although, granted, I can kind of see where they were coming from.

Call me a pervert if you want, but angry sex is the third best kind, right up there with "I've been waiting for this, forever" sex and "Heat of the moment" sex.

…speaking of which.

I turned over and laid a hand on the small, ebony pokemon that was still asleep next to me. I know Aria said that the umbreon was off limits, but the only reason she said that is because she didn't want me taking advantage of her. So far, I was the one being taken advantage of…which was perfectly alright with me.

Honestly, no one knows what their talking about. They call me a pervert, a freak, or. my personal favorite, "Pokewhore". Seriously, hats off to the guy who came up with that one. This whole thing really did spiral out of control quicker than I expected. All I did, was agree to help a wild vulpix with her heat. That's it, just one time.

Just once was all it took though, as pokemon proved to be even more gossipy bitches than humans. She told her friends, they told their friends, and so on. By now, every pokemon in the area, wild or otherwise, knew that I was the guy to come to for a quick fuck.

It's become a mutual transaction. I help them with their…er…problem, and I get as much tail as I want (pun completely intended).

Well, anyway, about the umbreon. Things have been kind of slow lately and with her going into heat for the first time, it was bound to be pretty strong, so I've been letting her come back every night over the past week or so.

It was kind of odd having a regular partner. The most frequent ones that come to see me are usually around one month intervals, but she was different somehow. I don't know, maybe that's just me reading too much into it.

I placed a hand on her back and gently stroked her soft, black fur, coaxing her out of her slumber. Her eyes began to flutter open and she let out a contented sigh as she snuggled in closer against my bare chest, nuzzling it affectionately.

"Sleep well?" I asked before planting a kiss on the top of her head.

"Bri." She nodded.

And…well…that was kind of all we had to say. I wasn't used to pillow talk, as most of them just leave after we're done, but really, nothing _needed_ to be said. For now, we would just cuddle and enjoy each other's company.

Just then, I heard my absurdly large grandfather clock that my parents gave me as a house warming gift strike ten from the living room, causing my temporary bedmate's ears to prick up. It was the time she had left every day beforehand and I'm assuming it would be the same today.

…it was nice while it lasted.

I sighed as she got up and pranced to the end of the bed, and hearing my disappointment, she turned back and leapt onto my chest, mashing her lips against mine. Although I was taken by surprise, I wasted no time in reciprocating. The kiss was sloppy, as our mouths didn't really fit together that well, but still hot as all hell.

Then, as quickly as it began, she broke it off and trotted her way to the other side of the room. Taking a running leap, she jumped through the window and just like that, she was gone. I wasn't worried, after all, it was a one-level house, but still, I wrapped the blanket around my mid section so I wasn't completely indecent and walked over just to make sure she was alright.

I saw her slowly sauntering across my front lawn. Her tail was swishing in a way that seemed to be beckoning me after her, leading me to believe that she knew very well that I was watching. My suspicions were confirmed as she looked over her shoulder and gave me a wink.

I smirked, knowing I'd probably be seeing her again tonight. "I hate to see you go, but I love to watch you leave." I muttered to myself.

*ahem*

My eyes snapped to the side to see my neighbor Mr. Fredrickson, a rather elderly man was sitting on his front porch with a gardevoir. I smiled.

"Mornin', Bill. How's it hangin'" I said with a grin.

"You're going to hell. You know that boy?" He said as bluntly as possible. Still, my smile was unwavering.

"Is that so? In that case, save me a seat when you get there, I don't want to spend the rest of eternity sitting next to some serial killer or something."

If possible, his glare narrowed and he gave me a spectacular view of a certain finger. "Up yours, kid."

"Oh, Mr. Fredrickson, I'm flattered, but you of all people should know I don't swing that way." I said, hoping he would understand what I meant by that. Just in case he didn't, I slipped in one more comment. "Mornin' Amber." I said, giving his gardevoir a wink. She blushed furiously and I had to hold back a snicker as Mr. Fredrickson was turning red for a completely different reason.

I closed the window before he could start yelling at me again and burst out into laughter. On top of being a hardcore religious fanatic, the fact that I had a rather romantic evening with his pokemon a few weeks ago gave him that little extra push to hate me even more. And I'm serious when I say romantic. In fact, she was the first pokemon I've actually considered dating since…well…for a long time anyways.

If it wasn't for him, I probably would have already done it. But he's over eighty years old and he's a heavy smoker, so he's bound to go some time. Is that horrible for me to think? It's not just me, just about everybody hates him.

Gah…whatever, I'll worry about it later. Now, I need to text Alyson and get some clothes on…not necessarily in that order. I grabbed a pair of boxers off the floor and slid them on before reaching for the phone on my nightstand.

**Hey Alyson, Cora's in, so we'll meet you in the clearing later. Remember to grab Marcus.**

I dropped my phone on the bed and soon plopped down next to it. So…I had a few hours to kill before I left to the woods, and absolutely nothing to do.

As I was thinking of something to do, the clock chimed again, saying that it was now 10:15. God, I really do hate that thing. I don't ever look at it and all it does is annoy me and everyone else that comes here.

...and just like that, I got an idea on what I could do.

…I wonder where I can find a sledgehammer this time of day.

…

**Well, that's it. Sorry for ending up posting a filler chapter and I hope it wasn't too unenjoyable.**

**Oh, and one more thing. I don't know what's going on, but in the past two weeks none of the stories I've been following have updated in about two weeks. Anyone got any recomendations? (if you recommend that I stop reading and start writing, i swear to god I'm blocking you, I am completely brain dead at the moment)**


	7. Take a Look At Yourself part 2

**Well folks, here's part two of the character chapters. If it's boring, I apologize, but don't worry. Next chapter, we get to the part of the story I've really been wanting to write since I started this. So I might be ignoring my other fics for a bit.**

**Also, because of my acute paranoia. I will no longer be featuring lemons on this site. But fear not, I am also on a website that goes by the name of . If you want to read the explicit parts of this story, I will post a link on the appropriate chapter. But let's not worry about that, that's still a little bit away from now.**

**And of course, as always…**

**ADALANTE!**

…

Alyson P.O.V

"God dang it!"

I slammed my hand against the mattress of my bed in frustration and buried my face in my pillow, letting out a muffled scream. I had been at this for at least two hours now and have made absolutely no progress whatsoever.

_**Aw, come on, hun. Don't give up yet. **_A soft, feminine voice rung in my head_**. It's like riding a bike. It's hard learning, but once you get it, you never really forget.**_

I groaned into my pillow. _And pray tell, what would an alakazam know about riding a bike?_

_**Absolutely nothing. But that doesn't make it any less true.**_

I flipped over on my bed and stared at the ceiling, which only made me feel worse. It was pink, which was something I regretted greatly. I had a bit of an obsession with that color when I was a child and when we moved here my parents asked me what color to paint my room. I could have chosen anything really, but no. My three year old mind had decided hot pink was the perfect color to live in for the next fifteen years. I shrugged it off rather quickly though. It wouldn't be too long until I had enough money to lease my own house.

_**How about another try, eh Ally?**_

I frowned at that. _Yeah, because that worked out so well the first hundred times._

_**Oh come on, don't be like that. What do we do when we fall down?**_

I smirked at that. It was amazing how much she was like my older sister. Calm, caring, encouraging, she even adopted one of her phrases. "What do we do when we fall down?" Something tells me she adopted that only because she knew what I would answer.

_…we get back up._

_**Atta girl.**_

I slid my legs over the side of the bed and stepped onto the fuzzy pink carpet. Normally I would have kept it clean at any cost, but after today, I didn't even bother. Now it was littered with pens, pencils, bits of paper, notebooks, and anything else you could imagine would be in a lab researchers room.

Alakazam had been training me on how to use telekinesis and it hasn't been going very well yet.

It wasn't long after I left Marcus in the hospital that my little friend decided to make herself known. She said she was waiting for the right time to speak up, and to tell the truth I'm glad she did. I much preferred freaking out in the privacy of my own home when nobody else was around then when everyone was trying to comfort me through my 'traumatic experience'.

I don't understand why my family was making such a big deal out of this. Yeah, I was in a bad situation. Yeah, that gyarados could have killed me, but the thing is, it didn't. Not only that, but it left no effect on me whatsoever. I'm fine, Rowan is fine, Marcus is fine, even Zorua is fine…or whatever Marc decided to name her.

I'd much rather just move on and forget it even happened, but how could I possibly do that when everyone keeps throwing it back in my face. My parents will always worry about me. That, I get. But when all my brothers and sisters are surrounding me and waiting on me hand and foot, it just makes me feel so uncomfortable. I mean, I know I get scared or nervous a lot, but I'm not weak and fragile or anything. I'm a big girl and I can take it.

I was even less weak now, what with the psychic powers and whatnot. Although, I'm still not sure about the cost. She brought me into this weird dream world…I didn't even know how to explain it, it was just weird. There, she introduced me to the freakin God of pokémon who began to explain the situation. I knew all about the shadows and what I was supposed to do, even if I didn't much like it. Still, what are you supposed to do when Arceus himself asks you to do something? Say no?

Anyway, today was my first training session, and it wasn't going so well. I wish it was as easy as it is in movies where you just have to clear your mind and concentrate. That I can do, heck I do it for a living. Nope, this was different.

Apparently, I needed a powerful memory or at least a powerful emotion…whatever that means. It could be happy, sad, aggravating, whatever you want, it just has to be strong. But it's been a few hours, and I was running out of memories, as well as things to try and move across the room.

I was a pretty mellow person in general, not a lot of things spark strong emotion in me, or if they do at the time, they don't have the same effect on me when I remember them. Well, there was fear, but I'm not sure that was so much an emotion than a state of mind. Anyways, using a fear related memory is supposedly a big no-no from what Alakazam said. Something about it being too unstable and things getting out of hand.

…case in point, my total mess of a room.

After learning the lesson for myself, I was stuck with going through random memories that were above-average but nothing really all that big.

I could maybe use my first kiss…nah, scratch that. Now that I look back on it, it really wasn't all that special. I know it's supposed to be big and romantic, and at the time it was, but now that I'm older, I don't think frenching my first boyfriend while being crammed in a porta-potty at a Blink-182 concert would give me that warm fuzzy feeling that it used to.

I could use the time my dad had to get heart surgery…but wait, that's fear related isn't it.  
>What about the time I rode on Danny's fearow? Yeah, that was exciting. Could I use that?<p>

_**Heck if I know, it's your mind, hun, I'm just living in it.**_

I gave a small giggle, before taking aim at a small pencil on the ground and thinking back to that day. The wind in my hair, the sun on my face, my feet dangling off the sides. And all of the sudden, that did the trick. The writing utensil was now floating in mid air in front of my face.

I smiled at myself, but then remembered not to lose focus. That's when bad things start to happen.

Almost as soon as I said that though, my phone vibrated in my pocket. It was a momentary lapse in focus, and I quickly tried to regain it, which was a huge mistake. If I had just stopped right there, it would have dropped to the floor and everything would have been fine, but because I tried to regain control, it jerked to the side and then went flying to the other end of the room, crashing into a vase and shattering it to pieces.

"Huh, wassat." I heard from across the hall outside my room. I sighed in disappointment as I heard padded feet begin to run in my direction. A growlithe skidded to a stop in front of my room and began talking incoherently. "Alyson, I heard a crash. Are you hurt? What..." he trailed off as he got a good glimpse at the state of my room.

"What the hell happened in here?" he continued.

"Er…I'd rather not talk about it, Duke." I answered honestly.

He stared around at the debris in disbelief. "Ally, it looks like an ursaring tore through here looking for food. Now what happened?"

I began ringing my hands together awkwardly. "Right, well, remember that thing I told you about a little while ago." I said, trying to be as vague about it as possible in case one of my other family members had also heard the crash.

He nodded, but didn't say anything.

"Yeah, well…I was getting in a bit of training."

He shook his head. "I can't believe this…you're actually going through with this."

"Well what choice do I have?" I groaned, sitting down on my bed with my back against the wall.

"What choice?" He asked incredulously. "You always have a choice, Ally."

I sighed, tucking my legs to my chest and resting my forehead on my knees. "Not with this, I don't."

I was really starting to regret telling him about all of this, but I couldn't help it. Even before we could understand each other, Duke was my confident for everything. Of course he was never able to give advice, but he was good for venting. I could just sit down and tell him everything and then he would put a paw against my stomach and stare up at me with his big brown eyes. I swear that would never fail to calm me down.

I frowned at that. It's not like I could hide it from him forever, but I had feeling things would change between us now. Like the rest of my family, Duke was overprotective, but to a much higher degree than everyone else. Now that he knew I could hear him, something tells me I'm going to get an earful of unwanted advice as opposed to a comforting friend.

"Look," he said as I felt him hop up on the bed. "Can't you just pass this off to someone else? I mean, He's freaking God, he can choose anyone."

"Doesn't work that way, Duke." I tried to explain. "We...that is, my guardian and I...we're...tied together somehow. I don't exactly get how it works, but she's stuck with me."

**_Aw gee, thanks, I feel so loved._**

I giggled a bit at that, which only confused Duke even more. _You know what I mean._

"Besides, even if I could, what good would that do. Then everyone would just keep passing it along to the next guy. Eventually, someone's got to do it. So why not me?"

He quirked an eyebrow. "Well, you're small, not that strong, have no fighting experience whatsoever-"

"That question was rhetorical." I interrupted, slightly irritated.

There was a long pause accompanied by an awkward silence. I don't know why I snapped at him, but I immediately regretted it. Why does everything have to be so complicated.

But as soon as I started to feel depressed, I felt a familiar feeling.

"Hey." Duke gently placed his paw on my leg, getting me to look up...right into those deep brown eyes.

"Whatever you choose, I'm with you...I just don't want to see you get hurt."

I gave a small smile...even if everything was completely different now, I guess some things never change.

"I know you're worried, and I get that, but I'm not alone in this. I've got a few friends and we're going to sort this out by the end of the day if it kills me."

He huffed before setting his paw back down and taking a seat next to me. "Yeah...well...I don't even know these guys. How am I supposed to trust someone I've never met."

"Geeze. You're even worse than my dad." I said jokingly. "If it's really that big of a deal, then come with me. We're meeting up later today."

He was silent for a moment before mumbling something.

"'Scuse me" I asked.

He sighed. "There's nothing I can do to talk you out of this, is there?"

I laughed a bit at that. "What happened to "whatever I choose", huh?"

"What can I say, I was just playing the hand I was dealt."

"You manipulative little bastard!' I feigned hurt as I shoved him playfully.

I don't think he got that I was messing around, because instead of nudging me back like he normally does he got all mopey. "I'm sorry, I just...I don't know...what I'd do if you got hurt."

There was a long silence, but it wasn't exactly awkward. Duke...well...how do I explain it. He was like...the older brother I never had. Well, that's not true, I had three older brothers. It was more like...he was the older brother I've always wanted. Yeah he was overprotective, but he was different than the rest of my family. He would try to talk me out of being stupid, or give his opinion on the matter before I do something, but he didn't freak out over every little thing. When he found out about the gyarados attack, he just said he was glad I was ok and left it at that.

I guess the difference was that my family just worried over everything, while Duke only got this way when there was a legitimate concern. So, I wasn't necessarily surprised that he said what he did, but while it did give me that warm fuzzy feeling, it also served to remind me how dangerous this was going to be.

It sent a shiver down my spine just thinking about it, and for the first time since that Alakazam popped into my head...I was scared.

...I needed a hug.

"Aw com'ere ya big lug." I finally said, taking him by surprise and wrapping him in a hug. It was way more for me than it was for him, but he didn't need to know that.

He yelped as I picked him up, but didn't object. Quite the contrary, he started nuzzling against me in return.

"Hey, I was planning on taking a break and going for a walk. How about you come with and we'll go grab something to eat?"

"Now who's being manipulative." He teased.

I giggled. "Basic rule of 'Guys 101'. The fastest way to get to them is through their stomach."

We shared a laugh for a moment before I finally let him go. He hopped on the ground and shook his fur out. "Well, let's get going then, I'm in the mood for pizza and I can't exactly get it by myself."

I snickered. "Should have never started giving you table scraps. You're addicted."

"Too late now, and it's not my fault that poke chow tastes like something a skuntank shat out."

"Thanks, I really need that image right before I eat." I said, grabbing my purse off of my nightstand.

...I never did answer my phone. Whatever it was, I'm sure it was unimportant. I never cleaned my room either, and I'm sure I was going to get it for that later, but it didn't matter. For the next few hours, there will be no parents, no brothers, no sisters, no one that will treat me like I'm dust in the wind that will disappear at the slightest provocation. Just me and my best friend.

...the way it should be.

* * *

><p><span>Aria P.O.V<span>

You know that feeling you get when you've just woken up? Where you're way too tired to actually start moving, but you're too awake to go back to sleep. I absolutely love those moments. It's the only time of the day where everything is serene, and I can just lay back, close my eyes, and enjoy the summer weather.

I especially enjoyed summer because that's when i could bring the hammock out. It was a birthday present from Alyson and Danny about two years ago. Well...anniversary present, anyway. It was the anniversary of when I met those three. No one knew my actual birthday...not even me. Regardless of how old I actually am, or the occasion that opted the gift, it was really quite sweet. Alyson and Danny got the hammock, Cora got the pillows and blankets and I've had a comfy bed ever since.

In the summer, I could hang it up in a tree for a few months and sleep outside, the warm night air was perfect for it and I don't know why, but I like being high off the ground.

However, the best reason to sleep out here was in all the subtle little nuances that only come in summer. The warmth of the sun on my face, the pleasant breeze lightly bristling my fur, the smell of Pecha berries wafting through the air. All of it was absolutely intoxicating. The world is a perfect place and absolutely nothing can ruin it.

"If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times, I have absolutely no interest in being your fuck-buddy!"

...except that.

My eyes snapped open as I returned to the real world, a world that, unfortunately, was a lot less perfect than my happy, early morning daydreams. The voice, though a little far back, was familiar all the same and the scent that smelled even sweeter than pecha berries seemed to spell out the situation pretty quickly.

...Absol in heat.

I flipped over in my hammock just as said dark type came stomping through the bushes below, a luxio with a rather perverted smirk on his face trailing closely behind her.

"Stop following me!"

"Aw come on, don't be like that. You know, I'd be a good mate."

The white-furred canine world around and bared her teeth. "And what, pray tell, can you offer me that no one else in these woods has already."

The luxio grinned. "I'll be the best you ever had."

"Fat chance! Get out of here!" She yelled.

"Yeah? And what if I don't?" He said, taking a threatening step forward.

The absol, however, kept a straight face and was unwavering. "I've got a blade for a tail and it's extremely maneuverable. Get as close to me as you want, I don't mind that, but if you try anything funny, I swear to Arceus, it's coming off."

That wiped the grin right off of his face and replaced it with a cringe. He grumbled something and then slowly turned to walk away.

Once he was out of sight, the dark type breathed a sigh of relief and i took that as my queue to speak up.

"Another man falls victim to your dazzling charms, eh Kira?" I asked with a smirk. She looked up at me surprised at first, but then quickly spread a frown across her face. "You could have helped, you know."

I stepped off the hammock and onto one of the branches of the large maple tree that was my temporary bed post. It's true, I could have helped her. I had a bit of a mixed reputation in these woods. Most of the time, people saw me as an approachable person, but I was a fighter, and I made damn sure that everyone knew that. If I get pissed, I will not hesitate to kick your ass. And let's face it, I get pissed pretty easily depending on the subject matter. So yeah, me stepping up and threatening the sex-crazed feline would have worked just fine.

However, really, what good would that have done. If I threatened him and he ran off, he would just be right back on her as soon as I was out of sight. What was that thing Alyson said...something about teaching a man to fish...oh forget it, the point is, she needs to learn to fight her own battles so she can fend people off when I'm not around.

"You looked like you had things under control. I don't like stepping in unless I'm needed."

"Whatever...hey, you got any more of those Cheri leaf things?"

I nodded in reply and hopped down a few more branches to a hollow point in the tree. Digging my claws into the hole, I dug out a bag full of small red leaves and tossed them down. Kira sliced it open with her scythe before it hit the ground, letting the leaves spill out across the forest floor and proceeded to lie down and roll around in them.

It was an old trick that I had learned after I went into heat for the first time. The leaves can easily overpower any scent, even a female in heat. Granted, Cheri berries would have worked a bit better, but I'm not about to waste food.

"How much longer do you have in your cycle? I'm running out of those."

"Oh, I feel so fucking sorry for you." She grumbled under her breath.

I became a bit irritated at that. "Hey, focus that anger somewhere else, I'm the one helping you, remember?"

Kira was normally a very sweet girl. Like most pokemon, she can still snap a bone when she needs to, but most of the time she played that "mother hen" role for anyone and everyone who needed help. However, heat made her crazy, and really why shouldn't it.

Yeah sure, the smell is bad, but that's not the worst part, hell, the pain isn't even the worst part. The worst part is every single guy following your scent and wanting nothing but sex. On the one hand, if you fuck him, your heat cycle's over, but you're technically mated to the bastard until one of you dies, on the other, if you don't, you continue to feel horrible and you're stuck with every guy offering to be your mate, letting the cycle repeat itself.

...and they're wondered why we're so pissed at them. Do they not get that we are in an immense amount of pain? Because let me tell you, it's not just an irritating itch that won't go away. If you want a closer comparison, why don't you go find a charizard and shove it's ignited tail up your ass, then you can come to us and say that you get how we must be feeling.

Me...I get how Kira is feeling, which is the exact reason I decided not to start an argument and instead just gave her some perspective.

Kira sighed. "Sorry Aria...but you know that's not me talking, right?"

"Yeah yeah, I get it." I said with a wave of my paw. "Forget about it."

To tell the truth, I kind of felt a bit guilty. Kira was one of the few female pokemon in this forest that I convinced to stay away from Danny

...ugh...ok...let's get this straight. I don't hate Danny. I don't like Danny either, but it's not like I can't stand being around him. It's just one of the minor inconveniences I have to deal with to hang out with Alyson and Cora and it's become a sort of a mutual dislike between us.

I don't have a problem with what he does, pokemon don't exactly look down on that sort of thing anymore. It's the way he does it that pisses me off. If you mate, it should be for love. That's the explicit reason that Kira and I have held out so long (although lately, she's been wavering a bit more than I have). I really just wish he could see that he's only hurting himself by doing this. If you only mate for pleasure, than how do you cement an actual relationship?

In other words, it's my prediction that once his libido is gone, he's going to grow old and alone, so I've taken it upon myself to try and get pokemon to stop going to him. But sitting here, watching my friend in pain, I was somewhat tempted to tell her to just go screw him already.

...somewhat...but not really.

"Feel better Kira. It'll be over before you know it."

"Yeah yeah yeah." She responded with a shake of her head before trudging along into the trees again.

I watched her leave and, with a large yawn, fell back down into my hammock. The sun was still in the east part of the sky, so it wasn't quite noon yet. I still probably had a good hour before I had to head for the clearing, and it's a good thing too, because I was feeling oddly tired. Not tired enough to sleep, but enough to keep me lethargic...back to daydreaming I guess.

* * *

><p><strong><span>? P.O.V<span>**

_Come on, kid. Just like last time. _My guardian told me in his usual deep bass voice.

I was sitting in my backyard wearing my usual attire; black sweatpants, black hoodie, which would be unbearable to normal people, but frankly, i needed it just to stay warm. I used to joke that my heart was made out of stone and ice because I rarely showed emotion in public areas, but considering how cold I always seem to be, I think it's completely possible.

It may seem a little unsafe to be practicing what I can only really describe as magic in my backyard, but I knew I wouldn't get caught. I lived alone, the yard was fenced off, and no one ever came over, so it's not like I would be disturbed or anything.

So, I sat indian style in the middle of my garden amidst the numerous flowers I had grown in my free time. My eyes fixated on a small patch in front of me. A rather large weed had gotten it's tendrils around one of my azaleas, which was now wilting. I reached out my hands and grabbed them, the weed in my right hand, the azalea in my left.

I didn't even have to think about it this time, my body just kind of...reacted. I could feel the energy course through my body as the life was sapped from the weed and transferred back to the flower. The spiky little root I had drained soon turned into a lifeless brown husk and I crushed it into pieces without so much as a second thought.

_Well...that's one way to tend a garden. What else am I supposed to use this for, though. I'm not exactly comfortable with killing people._

_**Sorry, but there might come a time when you don't have a choice.**_

As if on cue, I heard the gate on my fence creak open and turned to see it was a familiar face. Not a friendly face...just a familiar one.

She was a rather young girl, probably in her late teen years, with long red hair that was definitely not her natural color. She wore a pair of skin tight black jeans with a dark red t-shirt and an absurdly large amount of dark make-up. The whole appearance just seemed to scream "look at me, I'm emo".

...Is that what I really look like to other people...God, I better start buying different colored hoodies.

As if to contradict everything she wore, she grinned when she saw me. "Hello there, Death."

My eyelid twitched at not only the mention of my arcana, but at the look on her face. The grin she wore wasn't pleasant or inviting in any way. It was the kind that usually came with the phrase "Why So Serious!?".

"I told you not to call me that." I grumbled.

Her grin turned into a fake mocking pout as she approached me and tousled my hair condescendingly. "Aw, is the grim reaper mad."

"Shove it, Satan." I quipped back. Of course, that completely backfired.

"Aww, you're so sweet." She said smiling in the most sickeningly sweet way possible. I kept forgetting that she actually likes being referred to as her arcana.

"Maura," A new voice game from the gate, this one coming from a tall, thin man with a pale complexion. "Don't patronize him, we're here to ask for his assistance, not piss him off."

This new man was also someone I've met before. He had a small tuft of silvery hair on his head (if I had to guess, I'd say his hair color was from a dye as well) and wore a black suit coat with matching black pants. Normally this outfit would be completely respectable, but on him, it just looked like he was trying to look like an anime character...and failing completely.

Maura shrugged in response. "Whatever."

"Get out of my house...Now!" I shouted at them. I don't care what they were going to ask, it wasn't worth it...it never was.

"Tsk tsk. Is that any way to treat a king?" He said with a smile.

"Just 'cause some guy named The Emperor is latched to your soul, you think you have power over me? I'm not death, she's not the devil, and you're not a fucking emperor!" I ranted.

"On the contrary, being that he is, as you say, 'latched to my soul', he is, indeed a part of me, and I choose to accept all of me. It's a shame you cannot do the same. Such power is wasted in your hands." He spat.

"Hey, Amias, your nose is starting to look a little brown, you might want to dig your head out of your ass."

Amias frowned. "Charming. But as much as it pains me, I need your help. You're going to be coming with me now."

"Forget it," I said, standing up and heading to the door with the full intention of locking myself inside. But as I stepped on the deck and reached for the handle, my left leg erupted with pain. I cried out as I fell to the ground and clutched a small knife that had just been thrust into my thigh. I tried to scream out for help, but I quickly found that there was a hand covering my mouth.

My eyes widened with fear as Amias towered over me and Maura held me down. I normally could have easily broken free, but I found that my muscles were much weaker than normal, and they were steadily growing more limp. Maura held another knife in front of my face. "Poison tipped daggers. You're not going anywhere."

She let me go and stood up, but I could no longer find my voice to scream.

I was helpless. Completely and utterly helpless.

"Let this be a lesson to you. Whether or not you choose to help us, we will get what we want."

My vision began getting blurry as I slowly but surely faded into the blackness of unconsciousness.

"Don't worry. Once you wake up, it will all be over."

...and then I was gone.

…

...I'm a really horrible person, so I'm not even going to apologize for that cliffhanger. But come one, you really didn't know I was going to do that. I mean, almost every other chapter I've written has ended in a cliffhanger. It's kinda my thing with this story.  
>Anyway, I'll probably be ignoring my other stories for a bit and focusing on this one. Let's face it, I just got to the exciting part and I'm not going to be able to focus on anything else until I have the next few chapters for this done.<p>

That being said I want to issue a final warning. Even after all the stuff I've written so far...this STILL isn't as weird as it gets. If you are still with me now, congrats, you're a trooper, but I swear, the next chapter will be the last time it ever gets any weirder.

Anyways, until next time.

-Morris


End file.
